                            The
                     Standard
A Reformed           Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                  In This Issue:

                     Meditation -- Rev. Steven R. Houck
                         Suffering For Well-Doing ................................................................ 218

                     Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                         Preaching in Worship:
                         Voice of God, Voice of Christ (3) ................................................... 221

                     All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ................................................ 223

                     In His Fear -- Rev. Arie denHartog
                         The Virtuous Woman of Proverbs 31 ............................................ 225

                     Decency and Order -- Rev. Ron Cammenga
                         Funeral Services ............................................................................... 228

                     Search the Scriptures -- Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                         Love and the Footwashing ............................................................. 230

                     Ministering to the Saints -- Prof. Robert D. Decker
                         The Extreme Remedy ....................................................................... 232

                     Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven R. Key
                         Christ, our Prophet .......................................................................... 234

                     Day of Shadows -- Homer Hoeksema
                         The Revelation of the Wonder of Grace in Paradise .................. 236

                     News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 239





Vol. 74, No. 10
February 15, 1998


   Meditation                                                                                                                                     Rev. Steven Houck




                           Suffering For Well-Doing


                                                   "For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye
                                                   shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it,
                                                   ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God."
                                                                                                                             1 Peter 2:20

                                                                  over  if  thy  brother  shall  trespass                                The  apostle  speaks  of  being
                                                                  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his                       punished for those faults.  "...when
                                                                  fault  between  thee  and  him                                ye  be  buffeted  for  your  faults...."
                                                                  alone...."  Jesus would not have to                             The  word  "buffeted"  means  "to
Before the apostle Peter lays
           down  the  positive principle
           of this passage, he speaks of                          tell us that, if we did not sin.                              strike  with  the  fist."  This  is  the
a  contrasting  principle.   He  says,                                   We sin as employees.  We don't                         word which is used of the soldiers
"For what glory is it, if, when ye                                do the work which we are called                               who struck Christ in the face with
be buffeted for your faults, ye shall                             upon to do.  We talk back to our                              their fists at the time of His trials.
take it patiently?"                                               employers.  We are careless in our                            They buffeted him.  When a slave
       Here the apostle speaks of the                             work.  We sin in our homes.  Hus-                             misbehaved, it was common for his
believer's faults.  Even though the                               bands are not very considerate of                             master  to  hit  him  with  his  fist  or
love  of  God  is  in  our  hearts,  we                           their wives sometimes.  We fail to                            strike him with a stick.  No doubt
still  sin.    The  sinful  nature  with                          lead our family in devotions.  We                             some of those to whom Peter wrote
which we were born is always with                                 lose  our  tempers  when  we  deal                            had experienced such treatment at
us.  Thus we sin all the time.  That                              with  our  children.    Wives  some-                          the hands of their masters.
is what Jesus teaches us in His ad-                               times  disrespect  their  husbands.                                    The same is true of us.  When
monition of Matthew 18:15, "More-                                 They  are  contentious.    We  sin  in                        we  sin  against  others,  especially
                                                                  church.    We  don't  listen  to  the                         those who are in authority over us,
                                                                  preaching  of  God's  Word.    We                             sometimes we are punished for that
                                                                  don't  sing  and  pray  from  our                             sin.  We have probably all had our
                                                                  hearts.  We don't love our breth-                             employer  scold  us  at  one  time  or
Rev. Houck is pastor of Peace Protes-                             ren as we ought.  We don't seek to                            another.  Maybe he punished us by
tant Reformed Church in Lansing, Il-                              help them and encourage them in                               giving us a dirty job to do.  Wives
linois.                                                           the faith.  We have many faults.                              who are contentious are rebuked by


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218/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


their  husbands.    Husbands  are           feted for your faults, ye shall take          son, so we stand up for that per-
scolded for mistreating their wives         it patiently?"  If we sin and because         son.  Maybe we are asked to work
and children.  They are rebuked for         of that are buffeted, and if we take          on Sunday, but we stand fast in our
losing their tempers.  Even in the          that buffeting patiently, we are not          conviction that it is a sin to work
church  there  is  some  buffeting.         worthy of praise.  That is not some-          on the Sabbath.  We may even have
The minister rebukes a person for           thing which will cause us to receive          to  take  a  cut  in  pay  or  have  bad
his  sins.    The  elders  discipline  a    the praise and glory of men. There            hours because we insist upon this
person who is wayward.  Perhaps             is nothing extraordinary about that.          Christian principle.
it is one brother dealing with an-          It is what is expected of a person.               Good works ought to be seen
other who walks in the ways of sin.         We  have  done  wrong.   Therefore            in  our  home.    A  father  ought  to
All  of  us  have  been  buffeted  for      we deserve to be buffeted. We may             insist that his family have family
our faults.                                 not think that just because we take           devotions and personal devotions.
    When we are buffeted for our            rebuke  patiently,  we  are  excep-           Both  parents  ought  to  insist  that
faults,  how  are  we  to  take  that?      tional Christians.  We are not.               their  children  do  their  catechism.
Because we are sinners, sometimes               Since patiently taking the buf-           The TV must be strictly controlled
our reaction is improper.  We get           feting is nothing special, think how          so  that  nothing  ungodly  is
angry,  rebel,  and  strike  back.    A     far we are from being good Chris-             watched.    And  the  same  thing  is
lazy employee will tell off his boss        tians  when  we  don't  take  it  pa-         true of the radio.  A husband ought
and then quit, or he will deliber-          tiently. That is a very great sin.            to be kind to his wife and she ought
ately mess things up in his anger.              Now let us look at the positive           to be submissive and  obedient  to
A contentious wife will deny her            statement of the apostle Peter.  We           her husband.
faults and blame her husband.  A            read, "but if, when ye do well, and               These good works ought to be
husband  who  has  mistreated  his          suffer  for  it,  ye  take  it  patiently,    seen in the church.  We ought to
wife  or  children  will  tell  the  one    this is acceptable with God."                 love the Word of God, love to hear
who exhorts him that it is none of              Here the apostle speaks of do-            it preached, and love to study it at
his business.  He can take care of          ing  well.    The  word  used  here           Bible  study  and  catechism.    We
his own house.  Church members,             means "to do good, do something               ought be helpful and kind to our
instead of heeding the admonition           which profits others or is a help to          fellow believers.
of  the  minister,  elders,  or  fellow     others."  The  apostle  has  already              These good works ought to be
believers,  become  angry  with  the        made  it  clear  that  we  believers          manifested in our community.  If
one who is trying to help.                  have  a  calling  to  do  good  deeds.        our neighbor needs help, we give
    That is sin.  We add sin to our         Back in verse 15 he said, "For so is          him a hand.  We talk to him about
sin.    First  we  sin  in  doing  some-    the will of God, that with well do-           the  gospel.    We  try  to  show  him
thing  which  requires  rebuking.           ing ye may put to silence the igno-           the way of salvation and tell him
Then we refuse to hear the rebuke.          rance of foolish men."  Jesus tells           about Christ. There is no end to the
In  doing  so,  we  go  against  our        us in Luke 6:35, "But love ye your            good works that we can do.
Lord.  For the implication of Mat-          enemies,  and  do  good,  and  lend,              But when  we  do that,  we  are
thew  18,  where  Christ  tells  us  to     hoping for nothing again; and your            not  always  received  well.    One
go to an erring brother, is that he         reward shall be great, and ye shall           would think that everyone would
is to listen to the admonition.  And        be the children of the Highest: for           appreciate the good works of an-
that is what Peter says, "...when ye        he is kind unto the unthankful and            other, but it is not so.  Our good
be buffeted for your faults, ye shall       to the evil." In III John 11 we read,         works often bring suffering upon
take it patiently?"                         "Beloved, follow not that which is            us.  The apostle says, "but if, when
    The  words  "take  it  patiently"       evil, but that which is good.   He            ye do well, and suffer for it...."
mean literally "to remain under."           that doeth good is of God: but he                 We must never forget that the
The idea is not only that of bear-          that doeth evil hath not seen God."           world hates us believers.  It hates
ing up under the buffeting, but that        Even  though  we  are  sinners,  we           us  because  we  are  light  and  the
of continuing in it.  We are to take        have the calling to do good.  Good            world is darkness.  We are of God
the buffeting.  We may be struck            works ought to be a big part of our           and the world is of the devil.  Jesus
over and over again, but we bear            life--not because we seek to earn              says in Luke 21:17, "And ye shall
it  without  getting  angry,  striking      salvation, but because we are grate-          be hated of all men for my name's
back, or complaining.                       ful for the salvation given to us.            sake."  It is our good works which
    We  ought  to  note,  however,              These good works ought to be              show forth the fact that we are light
that by reacting in that way we do          seen at our place of work.  Maybe             and  of  God.    Therefore  it  is  our
not make ourselves worthy of any            no one wants to do a certain job,             good works which the world hates.
praise.  The apostle Peter says, "For       so we volunteer to do it.  Perhaps                Because  of  that  hatred,  the
what glory is it, if, when ye be buf-       the workers are picking on a per-             world persecutes us.  Jesus teaches

                                                                                              February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/219


us in Matthew 5:10-12 that we will         sinful on TV.  A husband might be           when we help out a neighbor and
be persecuted.  "Blessed are they          mocked  by  his  wife  for  believing       he spits in our faces for it.  It hurts
which are persecuted for righteous-        that old-fashioned stuff about sub-         when a father and mother do good
ness' sake:  for theirs is the king-       mission.  A wife might be mocked            in seeking to lead the family in the
dom  of  heaven.    Blessed  are  ye,      by her husband for insisting upon           ways of God and one or more of
when  men  shall  revile  you,  and        wearing  modest  dress  instead  of         the children buffets them for that
persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all      short skirts or tight pants.  Some          good.  Still, we are to take it pa-
manner of evil against you falsely,        members of the family might put             tiently.  We are not to strike back.
for my  sake.   Rejoice, and  be ex-       up a terrible fuss because father in-       We are  not to  ridicule back.  We
ceeding glad: for great is your re-        sists that they spend a good deal           are not to complain.  Silently, qui-
ward in heaven: for so persecuted          of time reading and talking about           etly,  and  submissively,  we  are  to
they the prophets which were be-           the Bible.                                  take it.
fore  you."  They  persecute  us  by           We can even be persecuted in                If we patiently take the suffer-
ridiculing us and making fun of us.        the church for our well-doing.  If          ing  inflicted  upon  us  for  being  a
Sometimes we are even persecuted           we stand up for the truth and for           good Christian, "this is acceptable
physically or economically.                righteousness, most likely we will          with God." We read literally, "this
         It is not just the world which    be criticized by someone.  Even in          is grace with God." The word grace
persecutes us.  We believers have          the church, people tend to become           means  pleasant,  delightful,  or
the world inside of us.  Our sinful        more liberal and to slip toward the         beautiful.    It  is  beautiful  when
nature is in perfect harmony with          world,  so  that  if  someone  stands       someone patiently takes the suffer-
the world.  Therefore, when we op-         up  for  the  old  paths  he  is  put       ing inflicted upon him because of
erate out of that sinful nature, we        down.                                       the good which he  does.   Such  a
too hate and attack fellow believ-             Anyone who does good works              person is beautiful.
ers  for  their  good  works.    Some-     knows that those good deeds bring               This  passage,  however,  says
times the attack of a fellow believer      suffering in every sphere of life.          more  than  that.    It  says,  "This  is
can  hurt  much  more  than  the  at-           The apostle teaches us that we         beautiful with  God."   In  the  first
tack of an unconverted person.             are  to  endure  such  suffering:  "...       part of this verse the apostle had
         We  are  persecuted  at  work.    but if, when ye do well, and suffer         said that patiently taking buffeting
Fellow employees make fun of us            for it, ye take it patiently...."             for  wrongdoing  was  nothing  for
because  we  will  not  join  them  in         This  is  the  same  word  which        which to be praised.  Now rather
listening to and telling dirty jokes,      was used earlier in the verse.  We          than  talking  about  receiving  the
or  because  we  do  not  swear  and       are  to  continue  to  bear  up  under      glory or praise of men, he speaks
use four-letter words.  They  ridi-        this kind of suffering too.  We are         of  being  beautiful  or  acceptable
cule  us  because  we  stand  up  for      to endure patiently persecution for         with God.  That we patiently take
someone who is being picked on.            the  cause  of  Christ.    The  apostle     buffeting when we have done good
They  play  dirty  tricks  on  us  be-     Paul says in Romans 12:12, "Rejoic-         is beautiful to God.  It is delightful
cause we will not join them in ne-         ing  in  hope;  patient  in  tribula-       to God.  This is pleasing to God.
glecting the work.  Sometimes we           tion...."    This  is  the  true  love  of        That  is  because  this  beauty
are forced to quit our jobs because        God.  For we read in I Corinthians          comes from God.  We can do good
we will not work on the Lord's Day         13:7 that love "beareth all things,         only by God's grace.  We can pa-
or we will not agree to be a part of       believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all        tiently  suffer  for  well-doing  only
some ungodly practice.                     things, endureth all things."               by  the  grace  of  God.    Thus  pa-
         We are persecuted in our com-         We are to endure persecution,           tiently taking suffering for the sake
munity.  When we do not allow our          even  when  we  do  not  deserve  it.       of well-doing manifests the beauty
children  to  play  outside  with  the     Even when we are persecuted for             of God's grace in us.  This is ac-
neighborhood children because of           our  good,  we  are  to  take  it  pa-      ceptable with God, because God re-
the Sabbath day, neighbors scoff at        tiently.  That is extremely difficult.      ceives all the glory and honor.  Our
us.  If we tell our neighbors about        By nature we say to ourselves, "I           beauty  is  but  a  reflection  of  His
Christ or humbly point out certain         do not deserve this.  I have done           beauty.
sins,  they  get  angry  with  us  and     good and they give me evil in re-               Do you want to show forth the
accuse us of interfering with their        turn.  That is not right or fair."          grace  and  beauty  of  God?    Then
life.                                          It hurts very much when we do           pray  that  God  will  give  you  the
         Sometimes  we  are  persecuted    good to a person and he turns right         grace to endure patiently the suf-
in our own homes.  A godly wife            around and is evil to us.  It hurts         fering which comes to you because
or husband is ridiculed by the chil-       when we do our best for our em-             of the good which you do.   u
dren for not letting them listen to        ployer and he returns evil, just be-
ungodly music or watch something           cause we are Christians.  It hurts

220/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


  Editorial


                                     Preaching in Worship:
        Voice of God, Voice of Christ
                                                          (3)

                                            church  by  the  ascended  Christ  is         the damned devil and not a good
The contemporary movement the living voice of God in Christ. man should be a preacher.  But
      for "liturgical renewal," that        Doubt  concerning  the  preaching,            we're stuck with it now....  If I had
      is,  the  revamping  of  public       therefore, as this doubt drives the           known, I would not have let my-
worship, which is now deep in the           contemporary movement for litur-              self be drawn into it with twenty-
                                                                                          four horses.
vitals of the Reformed and Presby-          gical  renewal,  is  another  form  of
terian  churches,  doubts  that  the        man's opposition to, and rejection              In addition, the consciousness
preaching of the Word is the voice          of, the Word of God.                        of the sermon's being the voice of
of God in Jesus Christ.  This is its            The preaching of the Word of            God will form the sermon, both in
sin.  This is its apostasy.                 God is the voice of God, the voice          the writing of it and in the deliv-
    This  doubt  explains  why  this        of Christ.                                  ery of it, as  authoritative proclama-
movement  abandons  the  public                 This has implications both for          tion.  It is not necessarily that we
worship of the triune God by His            the preacher and for the congrega-          thunder  and  roar,  although  there
church that was taught and prac-            tion.                                       are  times  for  this,  but  that  we
ticed by the Reformation.                                                               preachers  address  the  congrega-
    On the basis of Holy Scripture,         The Preacher Must                           tion, ourselves included, with the
the Reformation confessed that the          Take Preaching Seriously                    decisive explanation of things; with
preaching of the Word is the Word               We  preachers  ourselves  must          the promises that are sure; with the
of God.  The Second Helvetic Con-           take  preaching  seriously,  that  is,      summons  that  is  urgent;  with  the
fession of 1566 spoke for the Ref-          take our preaching as the voice of          rebukes  that  are  sharp;  with  the
ormation:                                   God.  There must be careful, labo-
                                            rious preparation of sermons as the         commands that  brook no refusal, of
                                                                                        God Himself.
  The Preaching of the Word of God Is       main work of our ministry.  How
  the Word of God.  Wherefore when          even  an  orthodox  preacher  who               We do not "share" insights, no
  this Word of God is now preached          dashes  off  his  sermons,  giving          matter how fine.  We do not, even
  in  the  church  by  preachers  law-      them  a  "lick-and-a-promise"  (as          earnestly,  put  forth  our  learned,
  fully  called,  we  believe  that  the    though preaching were the easiest           theological  opinions.    Rather,
  very Word of God is proclaimed,           task in the world), dares to present        "Thus  says  the  LORD,  not  only  in
  and received by the faithful.             himself to his Lord every Sunday            the Bible, but also this morning or
                                                                                        evening, here and now, in what I
This conviction shaped the public           and in the final judgment is a mys-         am saying."
worship  of  the  Reformation               tery  to  me.    Luther's  attitude  to-        At the conclusion we may of-
churches,  particularly  the  Re-           ward the task of preaching was dif-         fer  no  apology  for  our  message.
formed churches.                            ferent:                                     The short prayer after the sermon
    As the previous editorial dem-            The office of preaching is an ar-         must not leave the impression that
onstrated, the faith of the Reforma-          duous task....    I have  often  said       the people have had to endure the
tion  concerning  the  preaching  of          that, if I could come down with a         weak  and  light  words  of  the
the gospel was solidly grounded in            good  conscience,  I  would  rather       preacher, so that he was an impo-
Scripture.  Among other passages,             be  stretched  upon  a  wheel  and        sition on their time and patience.
I Thessalonians 2:13, Romans 10:14,           carry stones than preach one ser-         Sometimes preachers do this, and
John 20:21-23, and Ephesians 4:20,            mon.  For anyone who is in this           sometimes,  alas,    there  is  reason
21 teach that the preaching of the            office will always be plagued; and,       why they do it.  Luther said once
gospel  by  a  man  given  to  the            therefore,  I  have  often  said  that    that Christians may ask forgiveness

                                                                                            February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/221


for everything, except that the min-         accomplished  critics  of  Scripture.         The question is not merely whether
ister  may  not  ask  forgiveness  for       We have this tendency, as all too             the  minister  avoids  saying  any-
his sermon, because that is Christ's         many    Sunday  afternoon  dinners            thing that is false.  The question is
own Word.  An excellent prayer af-           and Monday morning gatherings in              not even whether all that he says
ter the sermon is the brief request,         the coffee shop prove.  There is, in          is  true  and  "spiritual."    But  the
"Father, Thy Word has been spo-              Reformed  lore,  even  the  tale  of          question is whether the congrega-
ken.  Apply it in the saving power           members  who  graded  every  ser-             tion  is  "built  up  through  his
of the Holy Ghost to our hearts and          mon:  B-; C; sometimes, F; occasion-          preaching."    And  this  depends
lives, for Jesus' sake.  Amen."              ally A-.                                      upon his faithfully explaining Holy
                                                 Shall we criticize the voice of           Scripture.
The Congregation Must                        Christ?  Did God get a B- today, or               The  Reformed  regard  for
Take Preaching Seriously                     even, if He outdid Himself, an A-?            preaching as the voice of God does
    Also  the  congregation  must                If we insist on being sermon-             not deify the preacher or place his
take  preaching  seriously.    How           critics, can we not expect the judg-          work  above  the  judgment  of  the
they do this is described in Lord's          ment that God will close His mouth            church.    This  is  plain  from  Acts
Day  38  of  the  Heidelberg  Cat-           in our audience, perhaps by with-             17:11, where the Holy Spirit praises
echism:    "...  that  the  ministry  of       holding the men who must be His               the believers in Berea for their ac-
the gospel and the schools (semi-            mouthpiece?  His judgments often              tivity  of  comparing  the  apostle's
naries--DJE) be maintained" and,              run precisely in the way of our sin.          preaching with Scripture in order
then,  "that  I,  especially  on  the        In addition to all the other burdens          to  determine  that  the  things
sabbath ... diligently frequent the            of the office, what young man likes           preached  by  him  were  the  truth.
church of God, to hear His Word."            to subject himself to constant, de-           Those who judge the preaching in
    The congregation are to receive          structive criticism?                          this way are "noble."
the preaching with the reverence,                I am well aware, and insist on                But  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not
submission, and obedience due to             it,  that  there  is  another  aspect  to     praise criticism of sermons.  Rather,
the voice of God.                            the calling of the congregation as            in a passage that was dear to the
    There is no place for the odd            regards  the  preaching.    Certainly         Reformers, He inspired the apostle
notion that once the sermon is fin-          the  congregation  must  judge  the           to  thank  God  that  the  Thessa-
ished  it  is object  of  discussion  in     preaching.  Not only the elders but           lonians received the Word of God
the  sense  that  this  one  is  free  to    also  every  believer  has  both  the         which they heard from the apostle
agree and that one, to disagree; this        ability and the duty to compare the           and his co-workers, not as the word
one  "likes"  the  sermon  and  that         preaching  with  the  Scriptures  to          of  men  but  as  the  Word  of  God,
one "dislikes" the sermon; and any-          determine that the preaching is, in           which, in fact, it was (I Thess. 2:13).
one at his pleasure may rip the ser-         fact,  the  Word  of  God,  and  not
mon to shreds before his family or           merely the word of  the  preacher.            The Power of Preaching
other members of the congregation.           Unqualified men must be kept out                  Since the preaching is the voice
The children of darkness are wiser           of  the  office  of  the  ministry.    El-    of  God,  there  may  be  no  doubt
in this matter than are the children         ders must insist that the minister            about  the  efficacy  of  preaching.
of light.  In noting that the present-       work hard,  at his sermons, forbid-           This  is,  in  part,  what  moves
day attack on preaching is the fruit         ding him to engage in other activi-           churches today to replace preach-
of the Enlightenment's liberation of         ties  that  interfere  with  his  great       ing with "more effective means of
Western man "from the authoritar-            task.  Elders and believers must see          (spiritual) communication."  They
ian  shackles  of  Scripture  and  the       to it, not only that the minister does        conduct  their  surveys,  listen  to
church," Klaas Runia astutely ob-            not preach heresy but also that his           their carnal members, observe the
serves that modern man does not              preaching  is  the  full,  rich,  solid,      culture, and create "contemporary"
want  to be  told what is true  and          penetrating exposition of Scripture           worship  services,  stripped  of
worthwhile.    He  wants  to  join  in       that edifies the body of Christ.              preaching.
the  discussion.    "But  the  sermon            Annually,  every  consistory  in              We have but one question:  can
provides no opportunity for discus-          the Protestant Reformed Churches              God's  voice  fail?    is  the  voice  of
sion" (The Sermon under Attack, Pa-          must answer before Christ the King            the risen Lord Jesus Christ possi-
ternoster, 1983, p. 5).  The ungodly         of the church, on behalf of the con-          bly ineffectual?
are  well  aware  that  the  voice  of       gregation that He bought with His                 Only, as genuine Calvinism has
God does not open up itself to criti-        blood, the question by the super-             always maintained, the saving effi-
cal discussion.                              vising  denomination,  "Does  the             cacy of the preaching is particular.
    Reformed people must not be-             minister  faithfully  explain  God's          The God who speaks is the God of
come sermon-critics, just as unbe-           Word  so  that  the  congregation  is         the eternal purpose of double pre-
lieving professors of theology are           built  up  through  his  preaching?"          destination, election and reproba-

222/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


tion.    The  Christ  by  whom  He                But to believers it is a quicken-          Eternity  will  reveal  how  the
speaks is the Christ who loved His            ing, converting, comforting, warn-         preaching  changed  each  of  the
church and gave Himself for her.              ing, strengthening, glorifying, sav-       saints  into  the  image  of  God  in
The Holy Spirit who is the efficacy           ing power.                                 Christ from glory to glory.
of the preaching is the Spirit who                Ah, the voice of God, the voice            In the face of the doubt of our
strictly carries out the will of Christ       of  Christ,  cutting  through  all  the    age  concerning  the  power  of
and of the Father who sent Christ.            babble, nonsense, frivolity, deceit,       preaching,  the  Reformed  church
       There is another efficacy of the       materialism, and wickedness of our         still  defiantly  and  confidently
preaching than that which is gra-             earthly life, on the Lord's Day!  Ah,      makes her confession:
cious and saving.  This is the teach-         the blessed, precious voice of God
ing of John 12:40, quoting and ap-            in Christ speaking truth, speaking           What a glorious work the minis-
plying to the ministry of Jesus the           heavenly things, speaking words of           terial  office  is,  since  so  great
words  of  Isaiah  6:    "He  hath            eternal  life,  speaking  peace.    "As      things are effected by it; yea, how
blinded  their  eyes,  and  hardened          cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is         highly  necessary  it  is  for  man's
their heart; that they should not see         good  news  from  a  far  country"           salvation,  which  is  also  the  rea-
                                                                                           son why the Lord will have such
with  their  eyes,  nor  understand           (Prov. 25:25).                               an office always to remain ("Form
with their heart, and be converted,               Eternity  will  reveal  how  the         of Ordination of the Ministers of
and I should heal them."                      preaching gathered, preserved, and           God's Word").   u
       The gospel is the power of God         built up the church.                                            (to be concluded)
to salvation to believers (Rom. 1:16).                                                                                     -- DJE

     All Around Us                                                                               Rev. Gise VanBaren

s      "...And Shall Deceive Many."               ers,  larger-than-life,  behind  the         North  Americans  have  been
                                                pulpit where Rev. Bill Phipps pre-         wearing  their  spiritually  needy
                                                pares to address his congregation          hearts on their sleeves for decades.
So Christ declared several times
      in  His  final  instruction  to  His      on  the  first  Sunday  of  Advent.        And  many,  even  nominal  Chris-
disciples before  His  death  on  the           The  dark-stained  oak  pews  are          tians, are favoring more worldly,
cross.    In  Matthew  24:5  He  de-            full.    And  the  300  members  of        less demanding gurus than Jesus.
clared, "For many shall come in my              Scarboro  United  Church  in               Promises of peace, energy and en-
name, saying, I am Christ; and shall            Calgary wait with more than their          lightenment have, for some, more
deceive many."  And again in verse              usual  anticipation  to  hear  what        appeal  than  life  everlasting  and
11  He  states,  "And  many  false              their minister has to say.  Only a         the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus, long
prophets  shall  rise,  and  shall  de-         few  weeks  earlier,  Phipps--the           associated  with  strict  command-
                                                newly  elected  moderator  of  the         ments, may have an image prob-
ceive many."
                                                United Church of Canada--caused             lem--but  there  are  signs  of  a
       That time has  come.  Though             an  uproar  when  he  denied  that         make-over in the works.  "There
throughout  the  ages  these  false             Jesus  is  God  and  that  he  physi-      are  accusations  of  a  watering
prophets and false Christs have ap-             cally rose from the dead.  "Some           down  of  dogma,"  says  Thomas
peared,  never has that Word been               say I am a heretic," the genial pas-       Bandy,  head  of  the  United
fulfilled more than in the present              tor tells his flock.  "And I've even       Church's evangelization ministry.
day.                                            got  the  wrong  stole  on  for  Ad-       "But everybody is trying to make
       Earlier we have called attention         vent," he confesses, pointing to his       Christianity more relevant to con-
to  the  apostasy  evident  in  the             unseasonably  green  vestment.             temporary culture."
                                                Purple is the proper color for Ad-           ...In fact, for more than a cen-
United Church of Canada.  Addi-
                                                vent and for penance.  But Phipps          tury,  scholars  and  thinkers  have
tional  information  appears  in                is  unrepentant.    In  a  20-minute       been  exploring  Jesus'  humanity.
Macleans'  magazine, December 15,               sermon,  titled  "I  Believe,"  the        Christology--the study of the na-
1997.  I quote parts of that article            moderator,  with  well-measured            ture and meaning of Jesus--now
to indicate the extremes to which               passion, explains his controversial        embraces such issues as feminism,
apostasy has gone.                              beliefs.    "The  truly  remarkable        liberation theology, the black free-
                                                thing," he declares, "is that there        dom movement, the environment
       In  the  translucent  glow  of  a        are literally thousands of conver-         and  even  New  Age  philosophy.
     stained-glass window, Jesus hov-           sations  taking  place--at  the  din-       "Every  age  has  to  answer  the
                                                ner table, in the workplace, wher-         question  Jesus  posed  to  Peter  in
                                                ever people gather--about Jesus."           the gospels, `Who do you say that
                                                                                           I am?' " says the Vancouver-based
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Prot-              The article goes on to state:            theologian  Sallie  McFague....
estant Reformed  Church  of  Loveland,                                                     "That means reframing the ques-
Colorado.                                                                                  tion in terms of the most pressing

                                                                                             February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/223


  issues of the day.  Is Jesus Christ           of  Ottawa's  Westboro  United.          Dad's  in  temple.    What  do  they
  important for the planet or just for          "Nobody  wants  to  see  a  witch-       teach the kids?"
  human  beings?"    For  some,                 hunt.  The Christian thing to do             The article points out that in-
  Christ's gender has proved to be              would be to pray for his conver-         creasingly there are couples of dif-
  a barrier.  But call it the Christian         sion."                                   fering religions joined in marriage.
  mystique: in the eyes of many de-               But  in  late  November,  the  ex-
  vout feminists, Jesus is a modern,            ecutive of the general council, the      This is not just Protestant who mar-
  sensitive kind of god, as consid-             governing  body  of  the  United         ries a Roman Catholic, but "Chris-
  erate of women as men.                        Church, voted to support Phipps'         tians" marrying Jews or Hindus or
    ...Theologians and scholars are               right to express his beliefs.  "Our      Muslims.    For  these  there  is  the
  amazed by the fierce response to              strength is our diversity and the        weighty  question:  what  must  the
  Phipps' sentiments, first aired in            freedom  that  we  give  people,"        children of such mixed marriages
  an  interview  with  the  Ottawa              says  Peter  Wyatt,  general  secre-     be taught?  The answer of  many
  Citizen's  editorial  board  on  Oct.         tary  for  theology,  faith  and         is: teach them both religions--that
  23.  Says Bater,  a retired United            ecumenism.  "But the shadow side         of father and of mother.  The idea
  Church minister: "Many previous               of  that  is  that  people  wonder
  moderators and many in my pro-                whether there are any boundaries?        is expressed this way:
  fession have said similar things for          In point of fact, we have doctrinal
  decades."    Michael  Steinhouser,            standards.  We believe that Jesus            "There are many paths to God,"
  professor of New Testament stud-              Christ is the  Lord and  Savior  of        Ricci's  Catholic  mother  compla-
  ies at the Toronto School of The-             the  faithful.    But  we  don't  use      cently  observed  last  month  after
  ology, agrees.   "The virgin birth            those  doctrinal  standards  to  ex-       participating in her granddaugh-
  and the Resurrection are theologi-            clude people."                             ter Jocelyn's bat mitzvah.  But for
  cal beliefs expressed in narrative                                                       most of the last 2,000 years, most
  form,"  states  the  Roman  Catho-              It seems that the devil himself          people  lived  in  villages  where
  lic....    No  scripture  scholar,  he     would qualify for membership in                 those  paths  almost  never  inter-
  says, would say they are accurate                                                        sected,  and  if  they  did,  the  out-
                                           these churches--and, in fact, serve
  accounts of  what happened.    As                                                        come might as easily have been a
                                           also as their very head.  If it is true
  Phipps told  Macleans': "The body                                                        holy war as a wedding.  Their re-
  dying and coming back and walk-          that  these  churches  do  not  "use            ligious traditions did not prepare
  ing around the earth and then as-        those  doctrinal  standards  to  ex-            them  for  a  society  in  which  the
  cending  into  heaven  in  a  three-     clude people," if even the "conser-             handsome boy next door might be
  storey universe--if I have to put         vatives"  insist that  "we  try  to  be         any  of  three  different  kinds  of
  the Resurrection in those terms it       as  inclusive  as  possible,"  why,             Catholic, let alone a Shiite.
  loses  its  power  because  it's  not    then, anyone can be member: athe-                 We have always been a nation
  credible to me."                         ist,  agnostic,  mystic,  even  Hindu           of  seekers,  and  now  not  one
                                                                                           bound by the religious fault lines
                                           and Muslim.  And the devil!
    And  what  is  the  reaction  to                                                       of  the  past.    The  proportion  of
                                                  "And many false prophets shall
Phipps and his heretical views?                                                            Jews  who  married  Gentiles,
                                           rise, and shall deceive many."                  around one in 10 for the first half
                                                  "And  many  false  prophets              of  the  century,  according  to  the
    "I might be a little more tradi-       shall  rise,  and  shall  deceive               American  Jewish  Committee,
  tional,"  says  Ken  Hodgert,  69.       many."                                          doubled  by  1960,  doubled  again
  "But  I'm  very  happy  with  what                                                       by the early 1970s, and in this de-
  he's doing  for our church.  Rev.               But none, it seems will listen--          cade  has  leveled  off  at just  over
  Phipps  has  woken  people  from         and  certainly  not  to  One  whom              50 percent.  To put it another way,
  their comfortable pews."                 these same false prophets declare               by some estimates one out of three
    ...But  many  ministers  strongly        to be no more than mere man ly-                 American  Jews  lives  in  an  inter-
  disagree  with  the  moderator's         ing still in some grave in Judea.               faith  household  and  faces  some
  stance.    "I  hope  Phipps  will  do           Apostasy  has  taken  long  and          version of Ricci's dilemma....   The
  what Jimmy Bakker did and write          shocking  steps  in  the  past  few             comparable  figure  for  Catholics,
  a book entitled I Was Wrong," says       years.                                          according to a 1990 survey cited
  Rev. Graham Scott, a minister in                                                         by psychologist Joel Crohn, an au-
  Wainfleet, Ont., and president of                                                        thority on mixed marriages, is 21
  Church Alive, an orthodox United         s      Now: Interfaith Couples                  percent; for Mormons, 30 percent,
  Church  theological  association.        How rapidly the church scene and for Muslims, 40 percent....
  "My only question now is, `Why,                  changes became evident again              And as these families raise their
  if Jesus is not God, should we pay       in  a  feature  article  in  Newsweek           children, they are creating, in ef-
  any  attention  to  him?'"    Many       magazine  of  December  15,  1997.              fect, a new form of religious iden-
  who  disapprove  are  reluctant  to      The  article,  titled  "A  Matter  of           tification in America, analogous to
  openly criticize Phipps.  "We try        Faith," had a sub-heading, "The all-            the  "mixed  race"  category  that
  to  be  as  inclusive  as  possible,"    American holiday in this age of in-             some people want to add to cen-
  says Rev. James Crighton, pastor         termarriage:  Mom's  in  church,                sus forms....

224/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


    By the time they're in college, a         little "free-form" prayer adopted         many ways to God.  The next gen-
  Hindu-Catholic child will hardly            from  both  faiths  thrown  in  each      eration will possess the  "best" of
  be a novelty in this country.  Per-         morning....                                 all  religions--which  must  assur-
  haps  one  of  them  might  even                                                      edly ultimately be the religion of
  marry  Rabia  Asghar,  the  3-year-           You  sense  what  kind  of  gen-        the  antichrist.    The  moral  law  of
  old daughter of Cynthia and Tariq         eration is arising.  On the one hand,
  Asghar of Chicago, who is being                                                       God is tossed aside.  The religions
                                            the public schools are not supposed
  raised  in  both  her  mother's                                                       of  the  heathen  are  incorporated
                                            to  teach  religion  at  all.    On  the
  Methodism and the Islam of her                                                        into  "Christianity."    There  is  no
  Pakistani-born father.  Or Karenna        other hand, the homes (where reli-          more  room  for  Christ  and  His
  Meredith, 2, who is learning about        gious  instruction  is  presumably          atonement.   And  soon, there will
  God from the perspective of her           given) are teaching a hodge-podge           be  no  room  for  the  church,  the
  Mormon  mother,  Christine,  and          of different religions.  The present        body of Christ.   u
  her Catholic father, Tony, with a         generation  claims  that  there  are

 In His Fear                                                                                     Rev. Arie denHartog

                              The Virtuous Woman
                                           of Proverbs 31

                                                We believe the correct interpre-        speaks  of  "finding"  a  virtuous
                                            tation of Proverbs 31 is that the ref-      woman.  The  reference  is  to  the
                                            erence is literally to a God-fearing        searching of the young man for a
We recently concluded a
               lengthy  study  of  the
               book of Proverbs in our      woman,  an  example  to  all  in  the       suitable marriage partner for life.
Young  Adults'  Society  with  two          kingdom of God.  Some commen-               Few  endeavors  will  have  greater
sessions discussing the portrait of         tators  interpret  this  passage  alle-     impact on his future life than this
the virtuous woman found in Prov-           gorically.  Some make her an alle-          one.    The  virtuous  woman  is  ex-
erbs 31.  We were impressed again           gory  of  "wisdom."    Others  make         tremely rare. That is the point of
with the great wisdom of the teach-         her to be an allegory of the church.        the question, "Who can find a vir-
ing of the Word of God in this pas-         We follow the rule of Bible inter-          tuous  woman?"  Few  are  to  be
sage.  The  godly  women  of  our           pretation that the Scriptures must          found. The vast majority of women
churches, both young and old, can           be taken literally unless the Scrip-        in the world are the opposite of the
do well by studying this Word of            tures  themselves  indicate  other-         virtuous woman. They are wicked,
God. Especially valuable is such a          wise. We see  no such indication in         proud, vain, self-seeking, rebellious
study to combat the sometimes in-           this  passage.  Furthermore,  the           against their husbands, worldly in
sidious  influence  of  the  ungodly        great detail that is given in describ-      their concerns, terribly poor moth-
feminist  philosophy  of  our  day          ing  the  virtuous  woman  fits  best       ers, and ill qualified to raise a fam-
even  in  the  church.    There  could      with a literal interpretation of her        ily in the fear of the Lord.  Young
hardly be a philosophy more con-            as the ideal woman.                         men searching for a good life part-
trary  to  the  beautiful  portrait  of         Space  constraints  do  not  give       ner  ought  to  read  Proverbs  31.
the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31           opportunity for a complete discus-          They  must  search  diligently  and
than that of modern-day feminism.           sion of all the details given in this       with great  care to look for  a truly
God-fearing women ought to real-            chapter.  In our Young Adults So-           virtuous  woman.    They  must
ize this, not only that they might          ciety we found more than enough             search in the right place for a wife,
combat  this  worldly  teaching  but        material  in  this  chapter  to  spend      namely,  among  the  God-fearing
also in order that they might know          two meetings discussing this sec-           and in the church of God. Surely
what is true beauty and virtue be-          tion of Proverbs.  In this article we       they will never find in the world
fore God.                                   can  only  point  out  some  of  the        one that has the virtues mentioned
                                            broad outlines of the chapter and           in Proverbs 31.  They must realize
                                            at the same time contrast them with         that "favor is deceitful, and beauty
Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Prot-      the philosophy of the world.                is  vain"  when  they  search  for  a
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,             Let us take note first of all that      mate.
California.                                 the  inspired  author  of  Proverbs             Most  young  men    of  our  day

                                                                                            February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/225


do not look for the virtue described       better could be expected of them.          denial is one of the greatest. This
here in the Word of God.  They are         In  our  modern-day  society  the          is  the  opposite  of  the  pride  and
concerned only for outward, physi-         woman has gifts that  qualify her          self-seeking that is so shamelessly
cal beauty and worldly popularity          for far more than being  confined          promoted and even boasted of  by
and  glamour.    This  is  tragic  be-     to the  home.  She is highly edu-          worldly feminism. There is hardly
cause they will soon find out how          cated, and it is a tragic waste for        an occupation in life that requires
little these things matter for a godly     her to stay home.                          more self-denial than the occupa-
and  blessed  marriage.    God  has            That  is  the  way  the  world         tion of mother in the home. But as
given us in His Word a guide con-          thinks. Who would deny it?  Often          much as this virtue is despised by
cerning  whom  we  should  marry.          with  great  anger,  contempt,  and        the world, much more is this vir-
We are wise when we pay  atten-            proud self-assertiveness the teach-        tue  exalted  by  the  Word  of  God.
tion to it in the choice of the per-       ing of God's Word is rejected.             Self-denial is a wonderful and glo-
son with whom we will spend the                Consider carefully how the vir-        rious spiritual virtue. No painted
rest of our life. The price of the vir-    tuous woman is described by God            face of any movie star or shapely
tuous woman is far above rubies.           in  His  Word.    "The  heart  of  her     body of a worldly sex symbol can
To find such a woman is to find a          husband  doth  safely  trust  in  her,     compare  with  the  virtue  and
great treasure that will be a great        so that she shall have no need of          beauty of self-denial. According to
blessing  for  one  in  marriage  and      spoil.  She  will  do  him  good  and      the words of our Lord Jesus, self-
also for the cause of the church and       not evil all her life."  It is obvious     denial  is  absolutely  necessary  for
kingdom of God.                            that this woman devotes herself to         the  Christian  life.  We  cannot  fol-
    Two things stand out immedi-           her  husband.  Her  husband  can           low Him except we deny ourselves.
ately when one reads this chapter          trust in her.  How vital is trust in       God  is  pleased  with  it.  The  self-
regarding  the    virtuous  woman.         godly marriage!  The virtue of this        denying  mother  is  precious  in
First,  she  lives  for  her  husband.     woman is doing her husband good            God's  sight.    Her  self-denial  will
Secondly, one of her greatest  vir-        and not evil all the days of her life.     have a tremendous impact on her
tues  is self-denial in order that she     She is highly praised for this.            home and family. There is no more
might care for her family.                     Furthermore,  the  role  of  this      powerful example than this virtue
    Both  of  these  things  are  con-     woman is not one forced upon her           for the nurture of God-fearing chil-
sidered outrageous by most femi-           by some evil man or repressive phi-        dren.    God-fearing  children  will
nists of our day. What could possi-        losophy of the time. We are told in        praise and bless the mother who is
bly be more male chauvinist than           verse 13 that "she worketh willingly       self-denying.
to say that the virtue and worth of        with  her  hands."    The  virtuous            Obvious  from  the  description
a  woman  in  marriage  should  be         woman loves her role, she finds her        of the virtuous woman in this pas-
judged  according  to  her  faithful-      glory  and  honor  in  it.    Her  hus-    sage is that she works very hard.
ness to her husband? Does she not          band loves her and she loves her           It is almost unbelievable how hard
have the right to independent glory        husband. What peace of mind there          she works. She rises up early and
and honor for what she is in her-          is for the God-fearing husband who         stays  up  late.    She  goes  to  great
self?  And what could possibly be          can  go  to  work  every  day  in  the     lengths to provide for her family.
more demeaning to woman than  to           confidence that things are well at         This  is  a  virtue  in  God's  sight.
confine  her  to  a  life  of  drudgery    home  because  the  home  is  under        There is moral and spiritual virtue
and humility in having to care for         the care and wise management of            in  this  hard  work    because  it  in-
children in the home? Is this not a        his godly wife.                            volves  devotion  to  her  husband
task that the least educated, with             Peruse  Proverbs  31  and  con-        and family and is not for self pro-
very few gifts, can perform?  Can-         sider how complete is the devotion         motion, not for glory among men,
not  child  care  be  done  by  those      of the virtuous woman to her home          but for the  good of husband  and
who are not intelligent enough  to         and family. "She riseth also while         family. Notice the great length to
get  any  other  occupation,  or  by       it is yet night, and giveth meat to        which this woman goes in order to
part-timers who have not yet ad-           her household, and a portion to her        provide  for  her  family.    "She
vanced themselves in their careers?        maidens" (v. 15).  "She is not afraid      seeketh  wool,  and  flax,  and
An  educated  and  gifted  woman           of the snow for her household: for         worketh willingly with her hands.
surely ought not to have to waste          all her household are clothed with         She  is  like  the  merchant  ships:
her  outstanding  gifts  in  the  de-      scarlet" (v. 21).  "She looketh well       bringing her food from afar" (vv.
meaning  role  of  taking  care  of  a     to the ways of her household, and          13 and 14).
husband's needs and those of chil-         eateth  not  the  bread  of  idleness"         The  virtuous  woman  is  very
dren?    Perhaps  in  days  gone  by       (v. 27).                                   gifted and intelligent. She is artis-
when  educational  opportunities               What are some of the great vir-        tic.  She  is able  to  make  beautiful
were  limited  for  women  nothing         tues displayed by all of this? Self-       things.  She  is  able  to  do  many

226/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


things. She has developed the  tal-         posite the Word of  God is to the           virtuous woman was a lawyer or a
ents  God has given her in a very           vain  philosophy  of  the  world!           politician.  This  is  not  to  say  that
great  measure.    She  does  not  sit      Strength and honor belong to the            the commoner must not also have
around moping that she has been             virtuous woman. Her  honor is ul-           a virtuous woman as his  wife. But
relegated to a sphere in which she          timately the place which the Lord           this part of the illustration of Prov-
is unable to "realize her potential."       has and will give her in His king-          erbs  31  silences  all  who  might
She uses her gifts and talents to the       dom. Her strength is from the Lord.         imagine that for the poor and un-
fullest  extent  in  a  fulfilling  role    It is real spiritual strength whereby       educated it may suffice to have a
which is at the same time for the           she does great things.                      wife  like  the  woman  in  Proverbs
good of  her husband and in devo-               Notice another great virtue of          31, but that the prominent men in
tion to her children.  This is noble        this  woman.    "She  stretcheth  out       the  world  of  our  day  must  have
in God's sight. There is no worldly         her  hand  to  the  poor,  yea,  she        wives who are equally prominent.
career  woman  that  can  light  a          reacheth  forth  her  hands  to  the        Their wives must have their own
candle to this virtuous woman as            needy." In the busyness of her life         careers, equal in worldly glory with
far  as  virtue  and  significance  is      in the home and with the family it          their husbands.  We said at the be-
concerned.   This must be  seen of          is  almost  beyond  belief  that  this      ginning that the worth and signifi-
course especially in the light of the       woman still has time to care for the        cance of the virtuous woman is de-
great value and significance of rais-       poor and the needy. Yet she does.           scribed in terms of her faithfulness
ing a covenant family and children          Again this shows how utterly self-          to her husband. But it is also true
that know and fear the Lord.  What          less this woman is. As much as she          that the husband is "known in the
career  in  the  world  can  possibly       loves  and  devotes  herself  to  her       gate of the city" because of the vir-
compare with this in God's sight?           family she realizes that this must          tue and devotion of his wife. There
What  has  greater  significance  for       not so totally preoccupy  her that          is  indeed  truth  in  the  common
the future welfare of the church of         she has no care for those who are           proverb "behind every great man
God and the cause of the kingdom            outside of her family. The virtuous         there is a woman."
of Christ?                                  woman  excels  in  her  care for  the           The  children  of  this  virtuous
    When all the glory of the king-         poor.  God  has  commanded  us  to          woman rise up and call her blessed.
doms  of  this  world  and  all  the        care for the poor. Godly women are          Her husband also praises her.  Not
works performed in them are de-             especially gifted in their womanly          all children and husbands of virtu-
stroyed, the works of the virtuous          nature to have tender compassion            ous woman do this.  This is not to
woman shall stand forever in the            and care for the poor.                      the credit of these ungrateful and
glorious kingdom of Christ. They                Most  career  women  of  the            derelict  children  and  husbands.
will  be  shown  to  have  been  per-       world are far too busy with selfish         Sad to say, even in the sphere of
formed by the grace of Christ Jesus         pursuits to have time and energy            the  church  there  are  wicked  and
in the heart of this woman and they         for these things.  Their very char-         ungrateful husbands and children.
will redound unto His praise.               acter of self-centeredness precludes        This is a shameful thing. Yet in the
    Pay  attention  to  the  profuse        this.  Self exaltation and self glory       covenant home we see this on ev-
manner  in  which  the  virtuous            is considered to be the great virtue        ery hand.  Husbands and children
woman  is  praised  and  exalted  in        of the world in which we live, but          who have wives and mothers who
Proverbs 31. "She girdeth her loins         in God's sight these are despicable         show the virtues described in Prov-
with  strength,  and  strengtheneth         and abominable vices. Compassion,           erbs 31 ought to praise and bless
her arms" (v. 17).  "Strength and           sincere,  genuine,  selfless  compas-       them  profusely.    The  blessing  of
honor  are  her  clothing"  (v.  25).       sion  for  the  poor  and  needy  are       her children and the praise of her
"Many daughters have done virtu-            great virtues before God. It amazes         husband are a great reward for the
ously, but thou excelleth them all"         me  how  often  the  homes  where           virtuous woman. Because she has
(v. 29).  The world would call the          there are several children and the          understanding and wisdom she re-
mother in the home weak and pa-             homes  that  are  so  very  busy  are       joices greatly in these things.  Hus-
thetic. The strong, according to the        also the greatest centers of hospi-         bands  and  children  have  a  great
world are those who liberate them-          tality and love for outsiders.              calling and obligation regularly to
selves from the home. To be some-               The  husband  of  this  woman           bless and praise their virtuous wife
thing, woman must  by all means             was  a  prominent  man  in  society.        and mother.  There are few things
get out of the house.  No woman             He was  known  in the gate of the           in life that God gives which are a
will ever make anything of herself          city.  In Old Testament times the           greater  blessing  than  a  virtuous
in the demeaning role of mother-            gate  of  the  city  was  the  place  of    wife and mother.  The spiritual and
hood.                                       commerce  and  business  and  the           psychological  well-being  of  chil-
    Godly  women  of  the  church,          place where the courts of law were          dren are the fruits of the labors of
pay attention to how absolutely op-         found.  Perhaps the husband of the          the virtuous mother in the home.

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    The  principle  from  which  the       her  husband  and  devotedness  to          blessing and praise of husband and
virtuous woman lives her life is the       her children, there is a higher prin-       children, she is blessed of the Lord
fear  of  God.    That  is  the  reason    ciple  out  of  which  she  does  all       and she will receive a great reward
why, as we said at the beginning,          things. This principle is the fear of       from Him.
there  are  no  women  with  these         the Lord. God Himself works His                 Let  us  look  around  us  in  our
praiseworthy  virtues  in  the  un-        fear  and  love  in  the  heart  of  the    churches  and  in  our  covenant
godly  world  in  which  we  live.         virtuous woman.  She  is  therefore         homes. The Lord has given us such
Those who do not fear God cannot           His glorious workmanship created            virtuous women. How worthy they
be truly virtuous.  They never will        in Christ Jesus. This is the greatest       are of praise, and what reason for
be.  As  much  as  the  virtuous           reason  for  her  virtue  and  praise-      thanking God we have that He has
woman is motivated in all her life         worthiness.    And  therefore  also,        given  such  great  women  to  His
and business by her faithfulness to        more  important  even  than  the            church.   u

  Decency and Order                                                                          Rev. Ron Cammenga


                                 Funeral Services

                            "Funeral sermons or funeral services shall not be introduced."
                                                                              Church Order, Article 65


                                           opportunity, both for comfort and             such practice, they shall not be in-
                                           warning.                                      troduced so as to avoid the dan-
                                                                                         ger of superstition that arises from
Conducting funerals--one of
        the more difficult aspects of                                                    this  practice.    We  think  that  the
                                           Funeral Services Forbidden
        the ministry.                                                                    tolling of bells at funerals should
                                               It might strike us strange that
    The deceased may be an aged                                                          certainly be discontinued.
                                           Article 65 of our Church Order for-
saint who has lived a full life.  Or
                                           bids funeral sermons and services.
a  young  father  or  mother  taken                                                    The synod of Dordrecht, 1578, re-
                                           Are there, then, to be no funerals
suddenly  from  the  family.    Or  a                                                  iterated  this  decision,  adding  "...
                                           for God's people?  Is our practice
teenager or child who dies before                                                      and that in the same the praise of
                                           today of having funerals, even fu-
ever coming to maturity.                                                               the deceased  not be proclaimed."
                                           neral services in our church build-
    Usually the deceased is a mem-                                                     Reflecting the concerns of past syn-
                                           ings, in conflict with Article 65?
ber of the church.  At times this is                                                   ods, the original Article 65 of the
                                               The  answer  is:    No.    What  is
not the case.  Often the family has                                                    Church  Order  of  Dordrecht,  1618-
                                           forbidden by Article 65 is making
the comfort of everlasting life and                                                    1619, stated:
                                           funerals official worship services of
glory  because  the  deceased  has
                                           the  church.    A  "service"  with  a
died in the Lord.  At other times                                                        Where  funeral  sermons  are  not
                                           "sermon"  in  that  sense  is  forbid-
they cannot have this comfort be-                                                        held, they shall not be introduced;
                                           den.
cause the dead one had lived wick-                                                       and where they already have been
                                               The history of this article in our
edly and worldly.                                                                        accepted, diligence shall be exer-
                                           Church Order goes back to the ear-
    No  matter  what  the  circum-                                                       cised to do away with them by the
                                           liest Dutch Reformed synods.  Al-             most appropriate means.
stances,  funerals  are  never  easy.
                                           ready the synod of Dordrecht, 1574,
But conducting funerals is a neces-
                                           expressed  its  disapproval  of  offi-      Opposition to Rome's Practices
sary part of the ministry.  And fu-
                                           cial funeral services.                          The decisions of the early syn-
nerals  provide  a  unique  ministry
                                                                                       ods  are  the  reaction  of  the  Re-
                                             In the interest of the greater edifi-     formed  to  the  superstitions  prac-
Rev.  Cammenga  is  pastor  of  South-       cation of the church, it is decided       ticed  in  the  Roman  Catholic
west Protestant  Reformed  Church in         that funeral sermons shall be dis-        Church.
                                             continued  or,  where  there  is  no
Grandville, Michigan.                                                                      Back in the days of the Refor-

228/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


mation,  and  still  today,  Roman         Reformed Funerals                            the departed saint lived an exem-
Catholic funerals are official wor-            Our funerals should give clear           plary  life  and  served  the  church
ship services.  There is a prescribed      testimony to the hope and comfort            honorably.  But family and friends
liturgy.  The body of the deceased         that  we  have  as  Reformed  Chris-         must  be  directed  to  God,  not  to
is  anointed  with  "holy  water."         tians.    This  is  the  concern  of  Ar-    man; to the work of God in Christ
Prayers  are  offered  for  the  dead      ticle 65.                                    Jesus, not to the accomplishments
and for those in purgatory.  Eulo-             Does this mean that tears  are           of a human being.  In this is our
gies are spoken in praise of the de-       not to be shed, as if the Reformed           comfort and hope!
parted.    Bells  are  tolled  to  an-     Christian  is  unaffected  by  death?            Ministers ought to take the op-
nounce the departure of the dead           Not at all!  Our Savior wept at the          portunity of a funeral to issue the
and to drive away evil spirits.  And       tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35).  We            warning of God's Word to the liv-
the Mass is conducted.                     grieve too when God takes a loved            ing.    The  living  ought  to  be  re-
    The  Reformers  rejected  these        one from us in death.  But our fu-           minded that the end of every man
abuses and were determined to rid          nerals must show that our sorrow             is death, and after death the judg-
the  churches  of  Romish  supersti-       is not at all the sorrow of the world        ment.
tions.  For this reason there was to       which has no hope (I Thess. 4:13).               This warning is all the more in
be no official worship service.                Even in the Old Testament the            place  because  at  the  funeral  the
    That  remains  the  position  of       Lord  was  concerned  that  in  their        minister  often  addresses  a  mixed
the Protestant Reformed Churches           funeral practices the children of Is-        audience.    Often  family,  friends,
today.  The consistory does not su-        rael  distinguish  themselves  from          and  business  acquaintances  who
pervise  the  funeral  service.    The     the  heathen  surrounding  them.             have left the church or are living
congregation is not summoned for           "Ye  are  the  children  of  the  Lord       wickedly are present to "pay their
worship,  as  is  the  case  on  the       your God:  ye shall not cut your-            last  respects."    Perhaps  there  is
Lord's Day, or the special days that       selves, nor make any baldness be-            present a son who had openly re-
will  be  mentioned  in  Articles  66      tween your eyes for the dead.  For           belled against his parent now de-
and 67.  There is no prescribed lit-       thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the       ceased;  or  a  grandchild  who  had
urgy.    No  "Form  for  Conducting        Lord thy God, and the Lord hath              had no use personally for grandpa
Funerals,"  as  there  are  forms  for     chosen thee to be a peculiar people          or grandma's piety.  Or the busi-
the administration of baptism and          unto himself, above all the nations          ness  associate  who  has  not  at-
the Lord's Supper.                         that  are  upon  the  earth"  (Deut.         tended a Sunday church service for
    The  main  reason  behind  the         14:1,  2).    Also  today  our  funeral      years.    The  seriousness  of  death
forbidding  of  official  funeral  ser-    practices must show that we are a            and the certainty of judgment must
vices is that funerals are not eccle-      peculiar  people,  holy  unto  the           be brought home to them, that so
siastical but family affairs.  Not the     Lord.                                        they may be brought to repentance
church but the family has the re-              Our  funerals  ought  to  be             or left without excuse.
sponsibility  to  bury  their  dead.       simple affairs.  The focus ought to
They  must  arrange  the  funeral.         be the Word of God.  Let the min-            Burial vs. Cremation
They  have  charge  of  the  service.      ister briefly expound a passage of               From time to time the question
They must see to it that the prin-         Scripture, directing his remarks to          is  raised  about  the  legitimacy  of
ciples  of  God's  Word  are  carried      the living, not to the dead.  This is        cremation  rather  than  burial.    Is
out in the laying to final rest of the     not  to  say  that  the  deceased  is        this an option for the Christian?  Is
deceased family member.                    never  to  be  mentioned  in  the            this  to  be  regarded  merely  as  a
    It would be well that this rea-        minister's remarks.  But it is to say        matter of personal preference?  Af-
son for the forbidding of official fu-     that the Word is to be brought to            ter all, have not many of the saints
neral services were included in Ar-        the living.                                  been burned to death by their per-
ticle 65.  In 1940 the Christian Re-           Ministers must refrain from eu-          secutors?    And  in  the  miracle  of
formed Church revised the article          logizing.    In  our  liberal-minded         the final resurrection is not Christ
to read:                                   day,  in  keeping  with  the  prevail-       going to raise all the dead, no mat-
  Funerals are not ecclesiastical, but     ing  notion  that  God  loves  and           ter  how  they  died  or  how  their
  family affairs, and should be con-       wants  to  save  all  men,  the  worst       bodies were disposed of?
  ducted accordingly.                      wretches are preached into heaven                All arguments to the contrary
Other  Reformed  denominations             at their funerals.  But this wicked-         notwithstanding,  the  Scriptures
have followed the lead of the CRC          ness has its beginning when the fo-          very  definitely  favor  burial  over
in this revision, including the Ca-        cus is placed on the deceased--his            against cremation.  This is not to
nadian Reformed Churches and the           life and good works.                         say that it is absolutely forbidden
Free  Reformed  Church  of  North              This  is  a  real  danger  for  Re-      for the child of God to be cremated.
America.                                   formed ministers, especially when            It is my understanding that there

                                                                                            February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/229


are  countries  in  the  world  today     the Holy Spirit and therefore, even                4. The Scriptures indicate that
where no choice is given, but, for        in death, ought to be treated with         not being buried, but instead hav-
various  reasons,  usually  shortage      the utmost respect.                        ing one's body burned, was a spe-
of land for cemeteries, the dead are          2. The examples of the saints          cial judgment of God.  Cf. Leviticus
routinely  cremated.    And  there        in  Scripture  indicate  that  burial      20:14;  21:9;  II  Kings  23:20;  Amos
may  be  other  reasons,  especially      was the norm.  Although he owned           2:1.
health reasons, that dictate crema-       no  other  portion  of  the  land  of              5. The  Scriptures  commend
tion.  Nevertheless, when the Chris-      Canaan,  Abraham  purchased  the           burial by comparing the burial of
tian has the choice of being buried       cave  of  Machpelah  for  a  burying       the  believer  to  the  planting  of  a
or cremated, he ought to have his         place.  Lazarus was buried.   Our          seed, a planting which gives testi-
body buried.                              Lord Jesus Christ was buried.              mony to the Christian hope of the
    Here are a number of reasons.             3. It can be demonstrated that         final resurrection.  Cf. I Corinthians
    1. Our bodies are temples of          cremation has its origins in pagan-        15:35ff.   u
                                          ism.

  Search the Scriptures                                                                            Rev. Mitchell Dick



                Love and the Footwashing
                                    (John 13:1-17)

                                          Simon's son, to betray him..."(John                  Hell is hell, I tell you.  And evil
                                          13:2).                                     is welling.  But who is king?   Is He
                                              Judas will go out.  He will call
Such evil welling.
    From hell, of course.  The end                                                   not Love?  Is He not Love now?
of Jesus must be by forces gushing        the wolves. And the devil in him                   Yes!    Love!    Love  rules  hell.
from there.                               will be calling the devils.  Wolves        Love thwarts hell.  Love instructs.
    Almost we do not see it.  It is       of hell.  Hellions from hell.  Gates       Love comforts.  Love prays.  Love
the last Thursday of Jesus' life on       of hell.  To devour the Son of Man.        will save.  Love is loving!
earth.  He is now busy, privately,        To undisciple and scatter disciples.               Jesus'  love!    Father-love!    If
ministering  to  His  disciples.    He        But look!  Now is love.  "When         such  love  is  now,   what  shall  we
will institute the Lord's Supper in       Jesus knew that his hour was come          fear?    Will  not  Love-now  always
place of the Passover.  He will in-       that  he  should  depart  out  of  this    be Love?
struct His disciples in many things       world  unto  the  Father,  having                  Behold  now:  Love  washing
about the kingdom.  He will offer         loved his own which were in the            feet.  Sin-cleansing, soul-cleansing
a  beautiful  high  priestly  prayer.     world, he loved them unto the end"         love.    Love  welling  ...  in  you?
He and the disciples will go to the       (John 13:1).                               Footwasher too?
garden  and  there  Jesus  will  pray
more....                                                    For Study, Meditation,
    Such  good  and  godly  things!
All is well!                                                      & Discussion
    But hell....  Look at hell's evil
welling:  "And  the  supper  being
ended,  the  devil  having  now  put                                                 thew 26:17-29, Mark 14:12-25, and
into  the  heart  of  Judas  Iscariot,    1.  Circumstances, Customs,                Luke 22:8ff. tell us of the circum-
                                          and a Clarification.                       stances leading up to and follow-
                                              John  13  is  the  only  record  of    ing the feet washing?  Glean from
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protes-      Jesus washing the feet of His dis-         a Bible dictionary or other source
tant  Reformed  Church  in  Standale,     ciples on that last Thursday.  What        to answer questions such as the fol-
Michigan.                                 do  the  parallel  accounts  in  Mat-      lowing:    What  were  some  of  the

230/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


customs associated with the eating           be referring to this twofold work           there something more, something
of the Passover?  What do we know            of cleansing in verse 10 when He            in our serving, which corresponds
of the custom of the washing of feet         says: "He that is washed needeth            to  "washing"  each  other  spiritu-
in Palestine?                                not  save  to  wash  his  feet,  but  is    ally?  In other words: Is Jesus say-
        Evidently, when Jesus and the        clean every whit"? (Hint: Jesus says        ing of us that we are and ought to
disciples had come to celebrate the          here  that  we  are  clean  "every          be His "cleansing agents," used of
Passover meal together, the room             whit," that is, totally.  But still our     Him, somehow, in the washing of
was all ready for feet to be washed:         feet  must  be  washed.    Might  the       the people of God?  If so, how can
there was a pitcher of water, a ba-          first clause refer to our legal status      we help each other get rid of the
sin or bowl to pour the water and            as  those  justified  in  the  sight  of    dirt?  How is our washing one an-
wash the feet, plus a towel to dry           God, and the latter clause refer to         other  different  from  Jesus'  wash-
off  the  feet  after  they  had  been       the necessity of daily cleansing and        ing of us?
washed by hand.  All was ready,              sanctification?  Cite other texts to            Fundamental  to  this  foot-
except, that is, for one thing: there        support or refute this claim.)              washing is a humble, serving spirit.
was no one to wash the feet!  There              How is the truth of the neces-          How do the disciples show at this
were no servants.  And none of the           sity of Christ cleansing us brought         time that this was exactly contrary
disciples had volunteered.                   out in the protest of Simon Peter           to their nature (Luke 22:24)?  Jesus
        As to the time when Jesus Him-       (vv. 6-9)?  How does Peter in his           is our example also in the right at-
self rose up to wash the disciples'          protesting  represent  all  men  as         titude  we  should  have.    He  was
feet a clarification is in order.  John      they are apart from grace?                  humbled low.  The Son of God, the
13:2-4a (KJV) speaks of it being the             Jesus at this time washes all the       Lord  and  the  Master  of  the  uni-
end of the supper when Jesus rose            disciples'  feet,  including  those  of     verse, the heir of all things, and all
to wash the feet.  But this is clearly       Judas.  Judas, however, was never           things now given into His hand (v.
not the proper translation.  Three           cleansed, spiritually, by Jesus.  This      3), continues to serve....  How do
things  prove  this:  1)  The  Greek         is brought out in verses 10, 11, and        we develop and show this serving
reads simply: "the supper having             18.  How does this compare to the           (vs.  self-serving!)  spirit  in  our
come to pass," that is: it being sup-        baptism of all the children of be-          hearts and lives?
per time;  2) Verse 26 shows that            lievers in the church?
the supper was still in process  af-                                                     4.  Love unto the End (v. 1b).
ter Jesus washed the disciples' feet.        3.  The Example for Us                          This washing of dirty feet is a
3)  Footwashing  would  normally             (vv. 12-17).                                lesson in Christ's loving us unto the
take  place  before  a  meal.   There-           After Jesus sits down again He          end (v. 1).  Jesus' love is the rea-
fore, we ought understand Jesus to           tells the disciples that what He has        son why He cleanses us with His
have washed His disciples' feet im-          just done in washing their feet is          blood and by His Spirit, and why
mediately before or sometime dur-            an  example  for  them,  that  they         at this time He teaches of this spiri-
ing the supper.                              should follow Him and wash one              tual cleansing by washing the dis-
                                             another's feet.  He argues (vv. 13,         ciples'  feet.    His  love,  flowing
2.  The Spiritual Reality                    14)  that  since  He  whom  the  dis-       freely to us, and unconditionally to
of Christ's Washing (vv. 4-11).              ciples call (literally) the Master and      us,  will  never  end.    He  does  not
        What does Jesus say in His con-      the Lord has condescended to wash           love His disciples only to the end
versation with Peter to indicate that        feet,  they  ought  also to wash the        of His life on earth, and then stop
there is a spiritual reality signified       feet of each other.   And further,          loving them.  No, He loves them
by the washing of the feet (vv.  8,          lest the disciples think this beneath       unto the end of this age, and then
10)?                                         their dignity as apostles (v.16), they      beyond, in the eternity of the new
        Cite  texts  in  Scripture  which    must  remember  that  Jesus  is  far        heavens and earth.
refer to salvation as a washing (e.g.,       greater  then  they,  and  that  if  He         In  your  circumstances  of  life,
Psalm  51:7;  Titus  3:5).  What  is         did  not  think  it  beneath  His  dig-     right now, do you know that Jesus'
washed (away) in salvation?  How             nity  to  wash  feet,  neither  should      love  has  not  stopped?    What  of
are we washed?                               they.                                       your future: can you say that Jesus
        The cleansing work of Jesus is           What about this calling of dis-         will love you to the end?
twofold.  There is His work of jus-          ciples of Jesus to wash feet?  Some
tification, or the blotting out of our       have thought, and still do, that we         5.  Perspective.
guilt, and the imputing to us of His         are all literally to wash each other's          Jesus,  the  foot-washer,  is  the
own righteousness.  There is also            feet.  Is this true?  Just how are we       Christ, the Son of God.  List sev-
His sanctifying work  in us by His           to wash each other's feet?   Is Jesus       eral  characteristics  of  this  Christ,
Spirit,  cleansing  us  from  the  cor-      saying  by  this  simply  that  we          and  His  love,  which  the  foot-
ruption of sin.  How might Jesus             should  serve  each  other?    Or  is       washing  brings  out.    How  espe-

                                                                                             February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/231


cially does this passage reveal Jesus       did not truly know Jesus Himself,         you are not trusting this Jesus, or
as the humble Servant of Jehovah?           or follow Him.   And  what  of us:        not  serving  Him.    For  "unhappy
List other instances in Scripture of        how do we show true faith?                circumstances,"  trials,  afflictions,
Jesus  serving  Jehovah  and  His               In  this  knowing  of  faith,  and    losses  of  whatever  sort  cannot
people.                                     in this serving, is, Jesus says, hap-     undo the happiness of salvation.
    Do you believe this Christ, this        piness (v. 17).  Judas, in his unbe-          Just think: there is Jesus.  Evil
Savior? Do I?                               lief and diabolical treachery, was a      welling.  Such evil welling.  It will
    Believing  is  knowing,  with           very  unhappy  man.    Later  he          be a cross and death and hell for
heart, mind, and soul, this wonder-         would  go  out  and  hang  himself.       Jesus.  And yet He is trusting His
ful,  feet-washing,  soul-cleansing         But for disciples, in the way of faith    heavenly  Father.    He  is  serving.
Jesus.  Believing is  following, with       and following Jesus, there is  hap-       Love  unto  the  end.    Happy.
humble,  thankful  heart,  the  ex-         piness.                                   Though it be a cross.  Though it be
ample  Jesus  has  set  for  us,  and           Are you happy?  Even happy            such a cross.  Happy ... for our hap-
washing others' feet.  Judas Iscariot       in the midst of sorrow?  If you are       piness!
knew all  about this Jesus.  But he         not,  the  only  explanation  is  that        Evil welling?  All is well!   u

  Ministering to the Saints                                                                  Prof. Robert Decker


                        The Extreme Remedy

                                              last proceed to the extreme rem-        Unity, but minor in the sense that
                                              edy,  namely  excommunication,          it speaks only of one aspect of the
                                              agreeably to the form adopted for       truth of Scripture, namely, excom-
                                              that  purpose  according  to  the
Having discussed previously
           the various steps or admo-
           nitions  to  be  followed  by                                              munication.  The Form of Excom-
                                              Word of God.  But no one shall be
the  elders  in  the  application  of                                                 munication bears the same author-
                                              excommunicated except with the
Christian  discipline  upon  an  im-          advice of the Classis.                  ity as do our Reformed confessions.
penitent  sinner  as  these  are  out-                                                It  may  not  be  changed  except  by
lined in Articles 76 and 77 of  The         Excommunication is mentioned as           way of a weighty objection (grava-
Church  Order  of  the  Protestant  Re-     well in Article 77 when it describes      men) being brought against it to the
formed Churches, we turn now to a           the third admonition to be applied        synod.    Such  an  objection  would
discussion of the last step of Chris-       by the elders to the unrepentant in       have to demonstrate from Scripture
tian discipline.  This last step is ex-     which, "... the congregation shall          that the form is in error.
communication.                              be informed that (unless he repent)           In the light of the fact that very
    This  last  step  is  required  ac-     he will be excluded from the fel-         little discipline is being applied by
cording to Article 76 which reads,          lowship of the church, so that his        the church in our day, and in light
                                            excommunication,  in  case  he  re-       of  the  fact  that  excommunication
  Such as obstinately reject the ad-        mains  obstinate,  may  take  place       is almost unheard of in the church
  monition  of  the  consistory,  and       with  the  tacit  approbation  of  the    in our day, it is significant that both
  likewise those who have commit-           church."                                  the Church Order and the Form of
  ted a public or otherwise gross sin,          Note  well  that  the  excommu-       Excommunication speak of excom-
  shall  be  suspended  from  the           nication of an unrepentant sinner         munication  as  a  remedy.    Article
  Lord's Supper.  And if he, having         must take place, "... agreeably to          76 of the Church Order calls it the
  been  suspended,  after  repeated         the form adopted for that purpose         "extreme  remedy"  and  the  form
  admonitions, shows no signs of re-
  pentance,  the  consistory  shall  at     according  to  the  Word  of  God."       calls  it  the  "last  remedy."    This
                                            This  means  that  the  Form  of  Ex-     means  that  our  Reformed  fathers
                                            communication has the status of a         regarded  excommunication  as  a
                                            minor confession in our churches.         means to save the impenitent sin-
                                            Minor, not in the sense that it car-      ner.  The church, after repeated and
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical
                                            ries less authority than the major        patient admonitions, proceeded to
Theology in the Protestant Reformed
                                            confessions,  the  Three  Forms  of       the "extreme, last remedy" with the
Seminary.

232/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


fervent hope and prayer that God            rash swearing, must not profane or             rulers of the Church of God, be-
would use that means to save the            abuse  the  name  of  God  ...  and,             ing  here  assembled  in  the  name
impenitent  sinner.    Our  churches        briefly, that we use the holy name             and  authority  of  our  Lord  Jesus
must  never  lose  sight  of  this  im-     of God no otherwise than with fear             Christ, declare before you all, that
portant point.  To neglect discipline       and reverence, so that he may be               for the aforesaid reasons, we have
                                                                                           excommunicated, and by these do
and even excommunication is to be           rightly confessed and worshiped by             excommunicate  N.  from  the
disobedient  to the  commandment            us,  and  be  glorified  in  all  our          Church of God, and from fellow-
of the Word of God and, further, it         words and works" (L.D. 36).  The               ship with Christ, and the holy sac-
is to deprive the impenitent sinner         Catechism,  teaches  that  when  we            raments, and from all the spiritual
of the means by which he might be           ask that God's name be hallowed                blessings and benefits, which God
saved!  One of the three important          we  are  asking,  "grant  us,  first,          promiseth  to  and  bestows  upon
purposes  of  Christian  discipline         rightly to know thee, and to sanc-             his  Church,  so  long  as  he  obsti-
and excommunication is the salva-           tify, glorify and praise thee, in all          nately and impenitently persists in
tion of the sinner.                         thy  works,  in  which  thy  power,            his sins, and is therefore to be ac-
                                                                                           counted by you as a heathen man
    The second purpose of excom-            wisdom,  goodness,  justice,  mercy            and a publican, according to the
munication is to preserve the pu-           and  truth,  are  clearly  displayed;          command  of  Christ  (Matt.  18),
rity of the church.  The form puts          and  further  also, that  we  may  so          who  saith,  that  whatsoever  his
it this way, "... that we may not by          order and direct our whole lives,              ministers bind on earth, shall be
this  rotten  and  as  yet  incurable       our  thoughts,  words  and  actions,           bound in heaven.
member, put the whole body of the           that thy name may never be blas-
Church in danger...."*  When one              phemed,  but  rather  honored  and               After  exhorting  the  congrega-
walks in sin and refuses to confess         praised on our account" (L.D. 47).           tion to keep no company with the
that sin and leave it, he must, after           Both  the  Church  Order  in ar-         sinner,  but  to  admonish  him,  the
being admonished patiently and in           ticles 71 - 80 and the Form of Ex-           form  gives  God's  people  sharp
the  love  of  Christ,  be  put  out  of    communication  make  clear  that             warning,
the church.  If the church fails to         there is only one ground for excom-
excommunicate  impenitent  mem-             munication, viz., impenitence.  One            In the meantime let everyone take
bers,  she  puts  herself  in  danger.      is  excommunicated  because  he                warning by this and such like ex-
The church will sooner or later, but        stubbornly  refuses  to  repent  and           amples; to fear the Lord, and dili-
inevitably, become infected by the          thus fails to "come to any remorse             gently take heed unto himself, if
                                                                                           he  thinketh  he  standeth,  lest  he
impenitent  member.    The  proper          for his sins" and to "show the least           fall;  but  having  true  fellowship
exercise  of  Christian  discipline  is     token of true repentance."  Because            with the Father and his Son Jesus
one  important  means  of  keeping          the sinner refuses to repent of his            Christ,  together  with  all  faithful
the church pure and faithful both           "heinous offence" he "daily aggra-             Christians, remain steadfast to the
in doctrine and in the lives of her         vates  his sin."   So  it  is that  after      end, and so obtain eternal salva-
members.    This  is  precisely  why        having admonished the sinner pa-               tion  ...  lest  our  God  humble  us
Christian  discipline  is  one  of  the     tiently and in the love of Christ and          again  and  that we  be  obliged  to
three marks by which, " ... the true          with the advice of the classis, the            bewail some one of you; but that
church may certainly be known ..."            elders are compelled to apply the              you may with one accord, living
                                                                                           in all godliness, be our crown and
(Belgic Confession, Article 29).            extreme  remedy.    On  the  other             joy in the Lord.
    Closely related to the above is         hand, should the sinner repent of
the fact that when the church re-           his sin in godly sorrow, the elders          In  the  form's   powerful  prayer
fuses to discipline the impenitent          and congregation gladly forgive the          God's people,
the  name  of  God  is  blasphemed.         sinner  and  restore  him  or  her  to
All sins are really blasphemy.  Ev-         the fellowship of the church.  The             ... bewail our sins before thy high
ery sin, whether it be a denial of          church does this because she is con-           majesty, and acknowledge that we
the truth, i.e., false doctrine or an       vinced that God has forgiven the               have deserved the grief and sor-
evil practice, is a refusal to honor        sinner.                                        row caused unto us by the cutting
and praise the name of God.  And                The  utter  seriousness  of  the           off of this our late fellow-member;
that's to blaspheme the holy name           "extreme  remedy"  is  emphasized              yea, we all deserve, shouldst Thou
of God.  The Heidelberg Catechism,          by the language used in the form               enter  into  judgment  with  us,  by
in at least two places, beautifully         and by the sharp warning given by
sums this biblical truth.  In answer        the form  to the congregation.  Be-          * All subsequent quotations are from
to the question, "What is required          cause of the sinner's refusal to re-         the Form of Excommunication found
in  the  third  commandment?"  the          pent the form states,                        in the Psalter used by the Protestant
Catechism, says, "That we, not only                                                      Reformed Churches unless otherwise
by cursing or perjury, but also by            Therefore  we,  the  ministers  and        indicated.

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  reason of our great transgressions,           we  may,  fearing  thy  judgments          essary  apply  the  extreme  remedy
  to  be  cut  off and  banished  from          which thou executest against the           in the hope that God will use it to
  they presence. But O Lord, Thou              stiff-necked,  endeavor  to  please        bring the sinner to repentance, and
  art  merciful  unto  us  for  Christ's        thee....                                     with the prayer that by this means
  sake; forgive us our trespasses, for                                                     God's church may be kept pure and
  we  heartily  repent  of  them,  and            Serious indeed is excommuni-
  daily work in our hearts a greater                                                       His holy name not blasphemed but
                                              cation.  Let the elders and minis-
  measure of sorrow for them; that                                                         honored and praised.   u
                                              ters take it thus, and whenever nec-


  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                            Rev. Steven Key



                            Christ, our Prophet

                                              shall come to pass, that whosoever               From  that  knowledge  comes
                                              will  not  hearken  unto  my  words          the calling to confess the name of
Christ "is ordained of God the
           Father,  and  anointed  with
           the  Holy  Spirit,  to  be  our    which he shall speak in my name,             God and to declare the will of God.
chief Prophet and Teacher, who has            I will require it of him."                   That in its essence is the calling of
fully revealed to us the secret coun-             Those  words  of  Moses,  those          a prophet.
sel and will of God concerning our            words of the one whom the Jews                   We also were created prophets.
redemption."                                  considered a prophet to whom no              That  is  evident  already  from  the
    Such  is  the  teaching  of  the          one  could  compare,  Peter  ex-             very  first  chapter  of  the  Bible.
Heidelberg  Catechism  in  Lord's             pounded under the inspiration of             Adam was created with the knowl-
Day 12.                                       the Holy Spirit with direct appli-           edge  of  God,  in  fellowship  with
    As  we  continue  our  study  of          cation to Jesus Christ.  He applied          God, to converse with God and to
the  names  of  the  Mediator,  and           those  words  to  convince  the  in-         glorify God by his speech.
particularly  the  name  Christ,  we          credulous Jews that Jesus Christ of              But  sin  messed  up  the  entire
must consider the threefold office            Nazareth, the One in whose name              relationship in which Adam stood
Christ occupies as our Mediator--              the lame man had been healed, is             as prophet of God.  His knowledge
Prophet, Priest, and King.                    the  only  and  true  Messiah,  the          of God became darkness.
    Christ,  the  Messiah,  was               great Prophet of the church, whose               The  prophet  became  a  liar.
anointed by God a prophet.                    doctrine it is highly dangerous to           That is what we are today, by na-
    That is what Peter testified in           hold in contempt.                            ture.  We are all liars.  Not in the
Acts  3.    He  pointed  his  audience                                                     sense that we corrupt the truth con-
all the  way  back  to the  words  of         His Prophetic Office                         cerning  various  relationships  be-
Moses  in  Deuteronomy  18:15ff.                  A prophet  is one who speaks             tween  creatures.    We  don't  say,
There  Moses said,  "The  LORD  thy           in  the  name  of  and  on  behalf  of       e.g.,  that  two  times  two  equals
God  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a           God.                                         seven.    We  know  many  truths
Prophet from the midst of thee, of                There are several aspects to a           about the elements of the creation,
thy  brethren,  like  unto  me;  unto         prophet's calling.  The chief factor         and  from  those  truths  develop
him  ye  shall  hearken.    And  the          in  the  office  of  a  prophet  is  that    many inventions and conveniences
LORD   said  unto  me,...I  will  raise       the prophet must know God.  All              for society.  But spiritually we are
them  up  a  Prophet  from  among             else follows from that knowledge             liars.
their brethren like unto thee, and            of the One whom he serves.  (As a                Man  knows  that  God  is  God,
will put my  words in  his mouth;             parenthetical statement of applica-          and  that  he  must  glorify  Him  as
and  he  shall speak unto them all            tion, that same holds true for you           God.  But he denies even that truth
that I shall command him.  And it             and me.  If we are to serve God in           in  his  own  mind.    We  do  too.
                                              the  office  of  believer  as  prophet,      When we walk in sin, we lie to our-
                                              as all Christians are called to do,          selves  by  saying,  God  doesn't
                                              then we must know Him with the               mind, or God doesn't see, or God
Rev. Key is pastor  of the  Protestant        personal  and  experiential  knowl-          will  forgive  without  demanding
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-             edge of faith.)                              anything  from  us.    We  deny  our
consin.

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own depravity and darkness.                  ye stone me?"  His whole life from          every  high  thing  that  exalteth  it-
    We  see  the  wrath  of  God  di-        Bethlehem  to  His  ascension  into         self against the knowledge of God,
rected  against  us  in  all  creation.      heaven is the revelation of the Fa-         and  bringing  into  captivity  every
We see the punishment of death He            ther, the God of our salvation.             thought to the obedience of Christ"
has exacted from sinners.  He kills              As Prophet He is and proclaims          (II Cor. 10:4,5).  "For the word of
us.  That is what we know of God.            the gospel.  In Christ Jesus alone is       God  is  quick,  and  powerful,  and
We don't know God as Savior--not              the  original  light  and  knowledge        sharper than any twoedged sword,
as we stand by nature.  And there-           of the glory of God.  He brought            piercing even to the dividing asun-
fore  we  don't  want  to  talk  about       His doctrine from the very bosom            der of soul and spirit, and of the
God  and  we  cannot  speak  His             of the Father.  And He continues            joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  dis-
praises and glory.                           to teach you as the chief Prophet.          cerner of the thoughts and intents
    That  is  how  we  stand  in                 Do  you  hear  His  voice?    So        of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
Adam--fallen prophets.                        speaks the apostle in II Corinthians            He  speaks.    The  mighty
    That  is  why  we  must  have            4:6:    "For  God,  who  commanded          Prophet speaks from the splendor
Christ.  You must have Christ.               the light to shine out of darkness,         of His holiness, calling you and me
    He  came.    He  came  as  the           hath shined in our hearts, to give          to repent  of our sins.   There is  a
Prophet  sent  from  heaven,  God's          the light of the knowledge of the           holy seriousness and majesty in all
Christ.    He  knew  the  will  of  His      glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus    His doctrine, commanding our rev-
heavenly Father.  He knew it from            Christ."  Whoever would serve as            erence.   In our lives that are per-
eternity.    But  not  only  did  He         God's prophets must first be taught         meated with sin He leaves nothing
know;  He  spoke.    Christ  said  in        by Christ.                                  uncovered.    He  makes  the  hearts
Psalm 40, "I delight to do thy will,                                                     of  sinners  to  tremble.    With  His
O my God: yea, thy law is within             The Significance                            powerful  voice,  this  mighty
my heart."                                       When we understand and con-             Prophet brings us down; He speaks
    And what did Christ do as our            fess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son      the truth concerning our sin.  But,
Prophet?  He stood in the place of           of the living God, then we also see         wonder of grace, He does so in or-
His  people  to  glorify  the  Father.       what is the significance of Christ's        der to reveal to us the glory of His
While we were yet enemies, lying             prophetic office for us.                    heavenly Father as the God of our
in  our  sin  and  shame  and  death,            Until  Christ  spoke  as  our           salvation!
Christ  stood  in  our place,  for us,       Prophet,  you  and  I  sat  in  the             As Prophet, Christ works His
for  all  His  elect,  as  Prophet.    He    shadow of death.  He was anointed           salvation in us!
did that as Prophet during all His           to  preach.    In  fulfillment  of  that        And the fruit of Christ's work
thirty-three  years  sojourning              prophetic announcement of Him in            as our Prophet is that we also be-
through this world in our flesh.             Isaiah 61, Jesus Christ was anointed        come prophets of the living God,
    He instructed us in the knowl-           to preach good tidings to the meek,         confessing His name.  We who are
edge of God the Father.  That was            and  sent  to  bind  up  the  broken-       in Christ Jesus by a true and living
His purpose.                                 hearted.                                    faith are now prophets, as well as
    That  was  His  purpose  in  the             You  and  I  need  this  chief          priests and kings.  We are reflec-
Old  Testament  as  He  spoke                Prophet!  You may have all confi-           tions  of  the  glorified  and  exalted
through  the  mouths  of  His                dence  in  your  own  knowledge.            Christ who lives within us by His
prophet-servants.  The whole Old             You may have a rather high place            Holy Spirit.  He who is the Christ
Testament is the teaching of Christ          among  men.    But  the  simple  fact       has  come  and  has  realized  His
as our Prophet.                              is,  "no  man  knoweth  the  Father,        threefold office.  He has realized it
    But  when  Christ  came  as  the         but the Son, and he to whom the             for us, and now realizes it in us by
Word become flesh (John 1:14,18),            Son will reveal him" (Matt. 11:27).         His Word and Spirit.
then  especially He instructed  His              Scripture says He spoke as one              By the preaching of His Word
people in the knowledge of the Fa-           having authority.  There was heat           the  light  of  God's  glory  shines
ther.  "If you know me," He said,            as  well  as  light  in  His  doctrine!     upon us in the face of Jesus Christ.
"you know my Father."  In all His            And there is still, by the power of         Some times more than others does
works  He  revealed  the  Father.            His Spirit, though His doctrine now         it make deep impressions upon us;
That is what He testified when the           comes through the mouths of weak,           but when the Spirit works by that
Jews took up stones to kill him, ac-         contemptible men, who are called            Word, we cannot escape the pierc-
cording  to  John  10:32.    As  the         to serve as His ministers.  "For the        ing  brilliance  of  that  light.    The
Prophet sent from God, "Jesus an-            weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not         sheep  hear  His  voice  and  follow
swered  them,  Many  good  works             carnal, but mighty through God to           Him (John 10:27).
have  I  shewed  you  from  my  Fa-          the pulling down of strong holds;               Christ  prophesies  in  such  a
ther; for which of those works do            Casting  down  imaginations,  and           way that He not only gives us un-

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derstanding  of  the  truth  of  the       soever shall deny me before men,          powerful  Word  of  salvation.    Let
Bible,  but  He  lays  it  upon  our       him will I also deny before my Fa-        us confess Him, shall we?  Let us
hearts, compelling us to speak and         ther which is in heaven."                 confess the name of our God, with
to sing the praises of our God.  So            Shall we not speak the praise         our  speech  and  by  our  actions.
it must be.  Jesus says in Matthew         of  Him  who  gives  unto  us  the        Then we shall have peace.  Then,
10:32,33:  "Whosoever  therefore           words of eternal life?                    and then only, shall we receive the
shall confess me before men, him               Yes, I know, there is still much      testimony in our hearts that we are
will  I  confess  also  before  my  Fa-    sin in us.  There are many devils         indeed  prophets  in  Christ  Jesus
ther which is in heaven.  But who-         to fight.  But Christ has spoken the      who saved us.   u

  Day of Shadows                                                                                Homer Hoeksema


                                                    Chapter 7
 The Revelation of the Wonder of Grace
                                   in Paradise (cont.)

                                           pentance.  We must remember that          gone.  Nothing remains.  To us, on
Jehovah Maintaining                        as yet Adam and Eve knew noth-            the other hand, all is reality.  Para-
His Covenant                               ing of a gospel, of Christ, of a sac-     dise, the trees, the commandment,
The Lord God turns from the rifice for sin, and of forgiving the snake as the instrument of the
       woman to the serpent.  But          grace.  Undoubtedly this is also the      devil--all  these  are  real.    Then
       now He no longer questions.         reason why the Lord does not dis-         there  is  no  difficulty  whatsoever
He  addresses  the  serpent  in  the       pute their false reasons which they       with  the  words  of  this  passage.
well-known words of Genesis 3:14,          give in replying to His questions.        The serpent, and that, too, as the
15:  "And the Lord God said unto           He simply addresses Himself to the        visible instrument of Satan, is here
the serpent, Because thou hast done        serpent and to the devil first.  Be-      addressed.    Moreover,  he  is  ad-
this,  thou  art  cursed  above  all       fore He deals with Adam and Eve,          dressed  in  the  hearing  of  Adam
cattle, and above every beast of the       the beginning  of the gospel must         and Eve.  He is addressed in lan-
field; upon thy belly shalt thou go,       be announced.  This is announced          guage which makes it clear that Je-
and dust shalt thou eat all the days       very strikingly in this word of the       hovah  maintains  His  covenant.
of thy life:  And I will put enmity        Lord that is addressed, mind you,         This is the very heart of the gospel
between thee and the woman, and            to the tempter, but in the hearing        of salvation.
between thy seed and her seed; it          of Adam and Eve.                              As  we  try  to  understand  this
shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou           Modernistic criticism does not        word of cursing that is addressed,
shalt bruise his heel."                    know what to do with these verses.        first  of  all,  to  the  serpent,  let  us
    It  must  have  been  a  deathly       If all this is a legend, a myth, then     have clearly before our mind what
suspense in Paradise just prior to         what  is  the  meaning  of  this  pas-    had happened.
these words of the Lord.  There was        sage?  The critic has great difficulty        God had established His cov-
the consciousness of sin, but there        in producing any kind of half-plau-       enant originally in Paradise.  This
was an attempt to hide and to shift        sible solution to this problem.  It       covenant  is  God's  relation  of
the responsibility for that sin.  We       has  been  suggested,  for  example,      friendship  and  living  fellowship
read  nothing  about  a  whole-            that  the  author  of  these  words       with  man.    In  that  covenant  of
hearted  manifestation  of  true  re-      writes  this  story  originally,  per-    friendship man was to reflect God's
                                           haps, as a protest against existing       life, to serve Him and praise Him
                                           snake-worship.  But let us note that      and extol the glory of God's Name
                                           higher  criticism's  denial  of  the      in  the  midst  of  and  through  the
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-        word of  God at this point means          means  of  all  the  works  of  God's
sor of Dogmatics and Old Testament         that all is lost.  The reality of sin,    hands around him.  Thus, and thus
in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.       the reality of the gospel--it is all       only, would he enjoy life in the true

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sense of the word.  Moreover, man            enant.  Because God maintains His           we  must  remember  that  not  only
must be of God's party, both posi-           covenant, the sinner dies.  Because         the serpent is involved.  The sub-
tively and distinctively, that is, an-       He  maintains  His  own  covenant,          ject in the serpent is the devil.  The
tithetically.  Over against the devil        the tempter is cursed.  Because God         degradation of the serpent, his tool,
Adam  must  show  that  he  was  of          maintains His covenant of friend-           is for the devil the constant sym-
God's party by saying "No" to the            ship over against the devil and the         bol of his own curse.  As the ser-
devil.                                       power  of  darkness,  enmity  is  an-       pent is most deeply degraded, so
    Man,  however,  had  violated            nounced, and fierce battle, and be-         the devil is degraded, cursed for-
God's covenant.  Satan, the devil,           cause He maintains His covenant,            ever.  The Lord maintains His cov-
had come through the instrumen-              God's victory, the triumph of the           enant.  And the enemy of that cov-
tality of the serpent.  He had op-           cause of His covenant, is promised          enant is accursed!
posed and slandered God and put              and predicted.                                  It is in this same light that we
his  lie  over  against  God's  truth.           Notice, in this connection, that        must understand the enmity which
Man had turned to the devil and              Jehovah God addresses the serpent.          the Lord here announces:  "I will
hearkened to him and had turned              He addresses him not in the sense           put enmity between thee and the
against God.  As  far as man was             that He spoke His word of bless-            woman, and between thy seed and
concerned, this violation of God's           ing to the animals in Genesis 1:22.         her seed."
covenant was the breaking of that            But the Lord addresses him as an                We must pay attention, first of
covenant  relation.    Apparently            individual,  rational  being:    "Be-       all,  to  the  idea  of  this  enmity  as
God's covenant was lost.                     cause thou hast done this...."  It is         such.  It implies, in the first place,
    But  God  maintains  His  cov-           plain  from  this  address  that  the       that  friendship  had  been  estab-
enant.  We must remember that this           subject in the serpent is the devil.        lished through the temptation and
covenant  is  God's.    There  are  not      The devil is still in the serpent.  He      fall  between  the  devil  and  man-
two parties who conclude and es-             could  not  have  left  him  after  he      kind.  An unholy alliance, a spiri-
tablish that covenant by mutual ac-          succeeded in his temptation, for the        tual fellowship of wickedness, an
tion and agreement.  There are in-           Lord  God  would  not  let  him  de-        affinity  had  been  established  be-
deed  two  parts,  or  two  sides,  in       part until He had cursed him.               tween  the  devil  and  the  woman.
that covenant:  God's part and our               Note,  further,  that  the  Lord        The reference here, let us note, is
part.  But there is but one party in         curses the serpent as animal.  His          directly to the manner in which the
the covenant, namely, God's.  God            form  and  his  mode  of  living  are       temptation and fall took place.  The
establishes His covenant.  God also          changed.  He is made to creep in            bond had been established first be-
maintains His own covenant.  God             the dust and to swallow dust with           tween  the  devil  and  the  woman,
is His own party as the covenant             his  food.    He  is  cursed  above  all    and through the woman with the
God, and man can only be  of the             cattle and above every beast of the         man, and through Adam, remem-
party of the living God.  Hence, He,         field.  This does not mean to say           ber, with all mankind.  This spiri-
and He alone, maintains that cov-            that the other animals were cursed          tual fellowship was a fellowship of
enant.  Man violates it, and, on his         in the serpent.  They are subjected         enmity  against  God.    God's  cov-
part, breaks it, breaks it irrevoca-         to vanity because of the fall of their      enant, as far as mankind was con-
bly,  so  that  if  it  were  up  to  him    king.    But  the  serpent  is  brought     cerned, had been broken and laid
that covenant would never be re-             down  from  his former  high  posi-         in ruins by  the  woman's  fall and
stored  and  would  never  function          tion  and  is  more  humiliated  and        through the instigation of the devil.
again.  But God maintains His own            despised  than  any  other  animal.             But  the  Lord  will  put  enmity
covenant.    That  is  why,  in  the         Moreover,  he  will  not  be  repre-        between them.  In the place of that
events  immediately  after  the  fall,       sented with the other animals, in           friendship there will be mutual ha-
He  quickly  passes  by  Adam  and           the new creation.  When the crea-           tred.  There will be enmity between
Eve, and He proceeds to deal with            tures  shall  be  delivered  from  the      them, that is, on both sides and on
the serpent and with the devil, in           bondage of corruption, the serpent          the part of both.  God will do that,
order  to  maintain  His  own  cov-          will not share in the glorious lib-         of course, by changing the heart of
enant over against the devil.                erty of the children of God.  God's         the woman and her seed.  For we
    This, we must remember, is the           curse remains on him (Is. 65:25).           must  remember  that  the  positive
chief content of these words.  Cer-              But why is the serpent cursed?          side of this enmity against Satan is
tainly, these words contain a prom-          The answer is:  because God main-           covenant friendship.  Even as the
ise ultimately of the Messiah.  But          tains His covenant.  The very vis-          friendship of the world is enmity
they do not speak of the Christ di-          ible instrument  of the devil's op-         against God (James 4:4), so the en-
rectly and clearly and individually.         position and wicked attempt to de-          mity against the devil and his seed
However,  they  do  express  very            stroy God's covenant must bear tes-         is  friendship  of  the  living  God.
clearly:    I  will  maintain  My  cov-      timony of this fact.  But even here,        God,  therefore,  will  maintain  His

                                                                                             February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/237


covenant in their hearts.  He will            woman  and  that  seed  of  the  ser-           Moreover, it is all by divine ap-
root out the devil's darkness and             pent  are  from  a  natural  point  of      pointment,  by  sovereign  election.
make the woman and her seed chil-             view both the woman's seed.  But            For  there  was  no  seed  of  the
dren of light again.  When the love           from now on that natural seed of            woman, and there was no enmity.
of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  their          the  woman  will  be  divided  into         There was only the seed of the ser-
hearts,  this  love  will  reveal  itself     two camps, into two seeds, from a           pent and enmity against God--that
as enmity against the serpent and             spiritual point of view.  From that         is,  as  far  as  man  was  concerned.
against the devil and all that is of          spiritual point of view, there will         But God had determined upon this
him.    The  antithesis  of  the  light       be the spiritual children of the cov-       enmity from eternity, and He had
over against the darkness will come           enant, the holy seed, in the line of        determined to put it into the hearts
into being.  On the other hand, the           the generations of the elect, on the        of His own people, those whom He
very  establishment  of  God's  cov-          one hand.  That seed is, in the high-       had chosen in Christ Jesus from be-
enant  with  the  woman  and  her             est sense, our Lord Jesus Christ, the       fore the foundation of the world.
seed will cause them to be the ob-            Son of Mary, David, Judah, Israel,          This is the gospel of the promise,
jects of the devil's hatred.  This is         Abraham,  Shem,  Noah,  Seth,               announced in Paradise.  This is the
the enmity of which the Lord here             Adam--born  of  a  virgin,  without          revelation of the wonder of grace.
speaks.                                       the will of man.  On the other hand,            But  there  is  more.    For  that
    We can see, as Adam and Eve               there will, from a spiritual point of       promise is also the promise of sure
at that time could not see, the real-         view,  be  the  seed  of  the  serpent,     victory.
ization  of  all  this  in  the  light  of    the  children  of  their  father  the           Indeed, that victory shall be at-
Scripture.    Centrally,  this  enmity        devil, the reprobate-wicked of this         tained through the way of suffer-
is realized in and through our Lord           world--a seed which culminates in            ing.  For the serpent and his brood
Jesus  Christ.    It  is  in  Christ,         the  Antichrist  and  which  has  its       shall bruise the heel of the woman
whether in the old dispensation by            king in the devil.                          and her seed.  Here is the proph-
way of promise or in the new dis-                 Now notice, in the third place,         ecy  which  implies  all  the  history
pensation  by  way  of  fulfillment,          the  Subject  who  here  announced          of the old dispensation.
that the woman and her seed are               this enmity and its creation.   Jeho-           Again, first of all, the language
justified  and  are victorious.  It is        vah  God  says:    "I  will  put  en-       is  applicable  to  the  serpent.    He
by  the  power  of  Christ  that  they        mity...."  Take careful note of this.         crawls  behind  man  and  bites  his
are regenerated and that the devil's          That  means  that  it  is  all  of  God.    heel.  This is typically serpent-like.
darkness  is  rooted  out  of  their          The covenant is God's!  He main-            But it is also devil-like.  We must
hearts.    It  is  Christ  who  makes         tains it; He establishes it; and He         understand, then, that the chief ref-
them the party of the living God.             realizes it.  Even through the deep         erence of the text is to the suffer-
It  is  Christ  who  makes  them  en-         way of the fall and sin, He leads           ing inflicted upon the church by the
emies of the devil.                           that  covenant  on  to  the  higher         devil and his seed throughout his-
    In  the  second  place,  we  must         glory in Christ.                            tory.  There is a battle, a spiritual
take note of the parties in this en-              Thus it is, in the light of Scrip-      battle, between the woman and the
mity  that  is  announced.    The  en-        ture.  For it is God who sends our          devil and between their seeds.  In
mity is between mankind and the               Lord Jesus Christ to gain the vic-          that battle the heel of the seed of
serpent, first of all.  No doubt, the         tory, to crush the head of the ser-         the woman is repeatedly bruised.
serpent  as  animal  is  meant  here,         pent, and to rear up  the glorious          This bruising of the heel signifies
too.    This  is  plain  from  the  very      covenant of grace, the eternal tab-         the  infliction  of  intense  pain  and
language of this announcement.  It            ernacle of God with man.  But it is         of an injury which impedes the ad-
speaks of the bruising of the heel            also God who through the Spirit of          vance  of  him  who  is  so  injured.
of man and of the crushing of the             our Lord Jesus Christ actually es-          The  church  will  suffer.    The  ad-
head of the serpent.  The reference           tablishes that covenant and realizes        vance  of  the  church  through  the
is literally to the injury inflicted by       its fellowship of friendship in the         world will be opposed and made
the  serpent  on  man  and  to  the           hearts  of  whomsoever  He  wills.          extremely difficult by the opposi-
death-blow inflicted by man upon              Herein lies the beautiful certainty         tion of the devil and his seed.  Hav-
the serpent, and thus to the hatred           and assurance of the gospel of the          ing her heel wounded, the church
between man and the serpent.                  promise.  There is nothing of man           will leave a bloody trail behind her
    Secondly, and essentially, this           in it.  The establishment and real-         all through the course of history.
enmity is between the woman and               ization  of  that  covenant  are  not           Nor is it difficult to trace that
the serpent as tempter, that is, there-       man's work at all.  It is all of God.       trail.  In the old dispensation, you
fore, between the woman and the               Man, that is, elect man, the seed of        behold the bruising of the heel of
devil.  And it is between their re-           the  woman,  is  of  God's  party           that  seed  in  the  persecution  and
spective  seeds.    That  seed  of  the       through His grace.                          suffering of the church before the

238/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


Flood; you see it in the history of        the hand of the world, the carnal          the dead and His ascension to the
Israel  in  Egypt;  you  mark  that        seed, the devil and his allies, Christ     right  hand  of  God,  where  He
bloody trail clearly in Babylon's at-      must  suffer  and  be  in  terrible        wields all power in heaven and on
tempt to destroy God's people; and         agony.    But  also  the  church  after    earth, has the victory.  He crushed
you can see it again shortly before        Him  must  suffer  all  through  her       the  head  of  the  devil  and  all  the
the coming of Christ in the perse-         history.  How true it is that also in      power of darkness.  But in Christ
cution of the holy seed in the time        the new dispensation the history of        the entire church is victorious, too.
of that old dispensational type of         the church has been written, figu-         They cannot possibly be overcome.
the  Antichrist,  Antiochus  Epi-          ratively, in the blood of the saints!      For  God  is  their  God,  in  Christ
phanes.    These  are  but  a  few  ex-    It is a history of continual struggle      Jesus, and they are of His party in
amples.    Always,  throughout  the        and  suffering.    Moreover,  the  se-     the midst of the world.  In the old
ages, there was a struggle, a bloody       verest suffering and persecution is        dispensation that victory is by way
struggle, in which the devil and his       yet coming.  There are bloody days         of promise, and always because the
seed always aimed to destroy the           coming  for  the  church,  when  she       great Seed is in the loins of the seed
holy seed, the seed of the woman.          shall be persecuted to the death by        of the woman.  In the new dispen-
But always, though often it seemed         the power of Antichrist.                   sation that victory is centrally and
as though the devil would succeed              But God's is the victory!              principally realized.  In the day of
and would do far more than bruise              That victory is realized in na-        Christ it shall attain to its everlast-
the heel, the victory belonged to the      ture  also:    the  serpent's  head  is    ing and full realization and perfec-
seed of the woman, and the holy            crushed though he may succeed to           tion.
seed was preserved--by the power            bite the heel of man.                          In  this  light  we  must  under-
of the promise.                                But especially is the reference,       stand  the  protevangel.    In  that
    Centrally,  of  course,  you  be-      again, to the church in Christ Jesus.      protevangel,  the  sure  promise  of
hold both the struggle and the vic-        Centrally that victory is in Christ.       God, we must see the design of all
tory in Christ Jesus our Lord.  At         He,  through  the  blood  of  atone-       the coming history.   u
                                           ment and in the resurrection from

  News From Our Churches                                                                       Mr. Benjamin Wigger

Congregational Highlights                  equipped  building  with  a  piano,            While we are mentioning web
    With thankfulness to God, our          organ, KJV Bibles, pulpit furniture,       sites, we can also include here that
Grace PRC in Standale, MI reports          and  all  the  necessary  items  for  a    the Covenant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ
that they have agreed to purchase          worship service.  It also included         can now be found at the following
the  property  of  the  disbanded          many  other items such  as a  fully        address:  http://www.covprc.org.
Grand Valley Covenant Reformed             equipped  kitchen,  folding  tables,           The congregation of the Hope
Church at the corner of Lake Michi-        and  chairs.    As  if  that  were  not    PRC in Redlands, CA hosted a fare-
gan  Drive  and  8th  Avenue  near         enough, the purchase also included         well  gathering  for  Nathan  and
Standale, MI.                              the  parsonage--a  four-bedroom             Paula  Brummel  on  January  4.
    This is the same location where        home  (two  really  huge  rooms).          Nathan had just completed his six-
Grace  has  been  worshiping  since        They  also  purchased  2.5  acres  to      month  internship  at  Hope  at  the
their organization back in 1995, so        the north of the property for pos-         close of 1997.  Plans called for the
they  are  very  familiar  with  what      sible future expansion.                    Brummels to go first to Loveland,
they have purchased.  The only dif-            I  have  no  way  of  confirming       CO for two Sundays and then con-
ference  now  is  that  all  the  bills    this, but it is quite possible that our    tinue  on  to  Grand  Rapids,  MI
come to them and not to the former         congregation  in  Loveland,  CO            where  Nathan  will  complete  his
congregation.                              holds the distinction of being the         last semester of seminary training,
    As  a  result  of  this  purchase,     only  PR  church  with  its  web  site     D.V.
Grace also began holding their ser-        printed on their sign out in front             The months of December and
vices at 9:30  A.M. and 7:00  P.M. on      of  their  building.    Loveland  also     January saw many of the choirs of
January 18.                                continues to report that they have         our various congregations present
    This purchase included a fully         a  very  positive  response  to  their     their annual Christmas concerts.  It
                                           web site.                                  all started back in early December,
                                               For  those  of  you  who  don't        with       the     choir     from     our
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-      have the time to drive to Loveland,        Hudsonville,  MI  PRC,  followed
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-         I  include  their  web  site  address      soon after by programs presented
ville, Michigan.                           here:  http://www.iserv.net/~prc.          by  the  Faith  PRC  in  Jenison,  MI;

                                                                                          February 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/239


    The
Standard
 Bearer                                                                                                                     PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                            Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                             Grandville,
  Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                                Michigan


the  Loveland,  CO  PRC;  and  the         received and many good questions                      Gritters preached from Philippians
Edgerton,  MN  PRC.    It  all  con-       were asked.                                           1:21  and  Romans  14:8,  on  the
cluded on January 18 with a com-                We also find that this commit-                   Christian's View of Death and the
bined concert presented by choirs          tee  has  filled  over  a  hundred  re-               Christian's View of Life.  God gives
from the Southeast PRC in Grand            quests for copies of the pamphlet,                    Christians the grace to die--with-
Rapids, MI and the Grandville, MI          "Promises, Promises, Promises--A                       out despair or the desire to com-
PRC.                                       Reformed  Look  at  Promise  Keep-                    mit suicide.  He also gives grace to
                                           ers," in response to an ad in World                   live before death--to the Lord.
                                           magazine.
Evangelism Activities                           The  consistory  through  the                                Food For Thought
    In late September of last year,        Evangelism  Committee  of  the                             "It is an advantage, not a dis-
Rev. J. Slopsema, pastor of the First      Hudsonville, MI PRC encouraged                        couragement,  to  be  weak  in  our-
PRC in Grand Rapids, MI, began a           their congregation to consider in-                    selves.  When a bucket is empty it
series  of  sermons  on  "The  Chris-      viting a friend or neighbor to their                  can be the better filled out of the
tian  Family."    First's  Evangelism      New  Year's  Eve  and  New  Year's                    ocean."   u
Committee  advertised  this  series        Day  worship  services.    Rev.                                                                 --Manton
extensively  in  area  papers,  and
their congregation was urged to in-               ANNOUNCEMENTS                                              CALL TO ASPIRANTS
vite friends and neighbors.                                                                                    TO THE MINISTRY
    In  evangelism  news  from  the                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                             All young men desiring to begin studies
Randolph, WI PRC we include the                 The  council  of  Edgerton  PRC  express         for the 1998-1999 academic year in the Theo-
following excerpt from a letter they       their Christian sympathy to the family of             logical  School  of  the  Protestant  Reformed
received from Pompano Beach, FL.                    MRS. DOROTHY BRANDS.                         Churches  should  make  application  at  the
                                                It is our prayer that her family may find        March  19,  1998  meeting  of  the  Theological
"We are a local church-run mission         comfort in the assurance that their dear sister,      School Committee.
organization  and  are  preparing          mother, and grandmother is now experiencing                A  testimonial  from  the  prospective
curriculum for use overseas.  We           the joy of God's presence and the living water        student's consistory that he is a member in
are very impressed with much of            for which she longed all her life.                    full communion, sound in faith, and upright in
the PR literature and would very                "As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water       walk; a certificate of health from a reputable
much appreciate receiving two cop-         brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.         physician; and a college transcript must ac-
ies of "Church Membership in an            My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:        company the application.  Before entering the
Evil Age."  These are for the pur-         when shall I come and appear before God?"             seminary,  all  students  must  have  earned  a
pose of previewing for future or-          (Psalm 42:1, 2).                                      bachelor's degree and met all of the course
                                                           Rev. Allen Brummel, president         requirements  for  entrance  to  the  seminary.
dering  of  larger  quantities.    Sec-                                    John Hilton, clerk    These entrance requirements are listed in the
ondly, we are presently collecting                                                               seminary catalog available from the school.
literature for six different libraries                  TEACHER NEEDED!                               All  applicants  must  appear  before  the
for churches and schools overseas               Hope  Christian  School  (Redlands,  CA)         Theological  School  Committee  for  interview
(Russia, Zimbabwe, Surinam, Italy,         needs a teacher or teacher/administrator for          before admission is granted.  In the event that
and two in Albania).  It is very pos-      the  1998-1999  school  year.    Grade  assign-       a student cannot appear at the March 19 meet-
sible  that  some  of  these  will  get    ments are flexible (3rd-4th, or 5th-6th, or 7th-      ing, notification of this fact, along with a sug-
translated into the language of the        9th).    Interested  persons  may  call  Ed           gested interview date, must be given to the
country at some point."                    Karsemeyer at the school (909-793-4584) or            secretary of the Theological School Commit-
                                           at home (909-794-3656), Doug Pastoor (909-            tee before this meeting.
    The Evangelism Committee of            792-9392), or Bill Feenstra (909-793-3597).                All correspondence should be directed to:
the Southwest PRC in Grandville,                                                                         Theological School Committee
MI reports that their pastor, Rev.                             SB INDEX                                       4949 Ivanrest Avenue
R.  Cammenga,  spoke  for  a  Re-               Reminder:  Deadline for ordering the sub-                     Grandville, MI  49418.
formed  Doctrine  class  at  Calvin        ject/title/textual index to the 73 bound volumes                                  Jon Huisken, Secretary
Christian High School on "The Ori-         of  the  SB is February 28.   (See  January 1                      *    *    *    *    *    *    *
gin,  Beliefs,  and  Practices  of  the    issue for details.  One small change:  index               The Protestant Reformed Seminary ad-
PRC."  The presentation was well           will come in one hard-cover volume, matching          mits students of any race, color, and national
                                           SB volumes.)                                          or ethnic origin.

240/Standard Bearer/February 15, 1998


